First Reading
Reading from the prophecy of Jonah
Jonah 3:1-10
In those days, the Lord spoke again to Jonah and said to him: «Rise up and go to Nineveh, the great city, and announce there the message that I am going to tell you.»
Jonah rose up and went to Nineveh, as the Lord had commanded him. Nineveh was an enormous city: it took three days to cross it. Jonah walked through the city for a day, proclaiming: «In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed.»
The people of Nineveh believed in God, proclaimed a fast, and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. The news reached the king of Nineveh, who rose from his throne, took off his robe, dressed in sackcloth, sat on ashes, and in his name and that of his ministers, ordered the following decree to be proclaimed in Nineveh: «Let neither man nor beast, herds nor flocks, taste anything; let them not graze or drink water; let everyone be clothed in sackcloth and call on God earnestly, and let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent, and withhold the fierceness of his anger, so that we do not perish.»
When God saw their works and how they turned from their evil way, he relented and did not bring on them the punishment he had threatened.
Gospel
Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Luke
Luke 11:29-32
At that time, as the crowds pressed around Jesus, he began to say to them: «This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
The men of this generation will be condemned on the day of judgment by the Queen of the South, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here.
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and there is something greater than Jonah here.»