Jonah 2 · The Lantern

And Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish,

As, then, Jonah spent three days and as many nights in the whale's belly, and was delivered up sound again, so shall we all, who have passed through the three stages of our present life on earth -- I mean the beginning, the middle, and the end, of which all this present time consists -- rise again.

Now that I have made mention of the great prophet, who typifies the holy mystery, foreshadowed the death which lasted three days and the salvation it restored, I should like to retrace the footsteps of my poem and briefly hasten back to Jonah. Wondrous are the Lord's stratagems. Though plunged in the sea, he tossed on the waves unharmed.

He prepared the fish, that is, He made it come next to the ship, in order that it might take Jonah in its mouth when he was thrown overboard.

and said: “I called from my distress to the LORD, and he answered me. From the belly of Sheol I cried for help — you heard my voice.

You threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current closed around me; all your breakers and your waves passed over me.

And I said: I am driven out from before your eyes — yet I will look again toward your holy temple.

Waters wrapped around me up to the throat; the deep closed around me; seaweed was bound about my head.

If, however, any one imagine it impossible that men should survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught up in the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot, let him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and swallowed down into the whale's belly, was by the command of God again thrown out safe upon the land.

"The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about," LXX: 'the water ran about me up to my spirit; the last depth closed around me'. These waters, near to the deep, which cycle and slide about the earth, which drag much mud with them, tend to kill not the body but the soul, for they are friendly to the body and warmed by its desires.

Jonah either says this wishfully, or with a certain trust he promises himself that he will return to Jerusalem and see the temple of the Lord.

To the roots of the mountains I went down; the earth — her bars were behind me forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God.

When my life was fainting away in me, I remembered the LORD — and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple.

"When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD." LXX: 'when my spirit failed in me, I remembered the Lord'. Although I hoped for no aid, he says, the memory of the Lord saved me, according to this passage: "I remembered the Lord and I rejoiced" [Ps. 76:4], and in another passage, "I remembered former days and I remembered the days of eternity" [Ps. 76:6].

Although he ought to have been corrupted and digested in the belly of the whale and diffused through the veins and joints of the fish, he came out safe and whole. calling the God who is common to all his own and personal God; because of the magnitude of such great favor, he especially feels that God is his God ad Lord.

When this purgative contemplation oppresses a man, he feels very vividly indeed the shadow of death, the sighs of death, and the sorrows of Hell, all of which reflect the feeling of God's absence, of being chastised and rejected by Him, and of being unworthy of Him, as well as the object of His anger.

Those who cling to worthless vapors abandon the loyal love that was theirs.

But I — with a voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed, I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the LORD.”

"But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." LXX: 'but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of praise and the action of thanksgiving. I will pay all that I have vowed to you, Lord, in salutation.' Those who keep their vanities have abandoned their mercy.

Hoping for salvation by human resources is no salvation, for mortal means will not rout death. So those who live in a time of anxiety should be anxious to pray to the Lord of heaven, who dispenses sadness or gladness and who alone by his transcendent sway can ensure that troubles are removed and happy times restored.… The power of prayers and the healing efficacy of tears in th…

Those who keep to vain and false things have forsaken their own mercy. But I with the voice of praise and thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay to you for my salvation by the Lord.

And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out onto the dry land.

Jonah did not escape the sea by the power of his birth, but by the hidden divine command he was thrown overboard, and a whale received him, vomited him out after three days as a sign of future mystery, and reserved him by the merit of prophetic grace.

The prophet is animated with good hope, and now secure about his liberation, he promises that he will sacrifice thanksgiving and that he will fulfill all vows.

Jonah2