These days I was walking pensively focusing on a phrase of Dives in Misericordia (paragraph 13): “Conversion to God always consists in discovering His mercy.” And it came to my heart that I should read the book of Jonah. I read throughout the book of Johah where it says that Jonah was send by God to Nineveh in order to announce to the Ninevites that if they did not convert, their city would be destroyed. The population in full—beginning with the king—took the decision to repent from their evil ways and to do penance. Even the animals entered in this decision. So they thought God can repent and change a decision.

In fact, God saw the repentance of the people and how they left their evil way and He revoked the sentence He proclaimed against the Ninevites. God does not want the death of the sinner, but that he converts and lives. It was necessary to hear a hard notice for the people to discover Mercy. In fact, upon entering the road of penance and repentance, they discovered the pardon of God. This same experience God want us to do. We may discover the Mercy through the road of conversion. We always encounter a God disposed to pardon.

Fr. Antônio Aguiar

Translated from Portuguese