Memorial of Saint Denis, bishop of Paris and martyr

Lectionary: 463

Jonah was greatly displeased
and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. He prayed, “I beseech you, LORD, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish.



I was baptized and made my First Communion at Saint Denis Church, out on Cane Run Road in Louisville, Kentucky. As a first grader I was fascinated by the gruesome stained-glass window of Saint Denis, the bishop, carrying his head under his arm -- with his mitre firmly set on top. 

I didn't know until just now that image is the standard for him. A Google Image search turned up several similar paintings and stone carvings, including the ghastly one in the collect panel I have created. Even before the digital age artists knew the entertainment value of a headless man's antics. The story:

Denis, having alarmed the pagan priests by his many conversions, was executed by beheading on the highest hill in Paris (now Montmartre), which was likely to have been a druidic holy place. After his head was chopped off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked six miles to the summit of Mont Mars (now Montmartre), preaching a sermon the entire way.

With that droll story, we can address the comical scene in the Book of Jonah. Jonah complains to God about God's mercy. If he was the first to do so, he certainly wasn't the last. 

• Jesus' opponents complained about his eating with tax collectors and sinners.
• Ancient bishops condemned Irish priests for granting absolution more than once in a lifetime. 
• Roman Cardinals were aghast when the Pope agreed to Saint Francis' request for the Portiuncula Privilege. 
• Jansenist Catholics complained about Saint Alphonsus Ligouri's absolving sinners for a mere slap on the wrist, a penance of "three Our Fathers and Three Hail Marys." 

The list goes on and on. Pharisees want to shut the barn door after God has released the horses. 

We should not throw our pearls to swine but we readily broadcast seeds of forgiveness to everyone who asks. The Church has been sent to the world to forgive sinners. We have considerably less authority to condemn. 

Jonah the prophet will neither forgive nor forget. He holds resentments even against those who sincerely repent. His plight is pure bathos. The Bible laughs at him because he cannot laugh at himself.