When the people of Nineveh heard the warning of the prophet Jonah, they did something that our modern world often finds very difficult: they acknowledged their sin. They did not excuse themselves. They did not redefine what was wrong or convince themselves that God’s commandments no longer mattered. They humbled themselves, fasted, repented, and turned back to the Lord.
That same spirit of repentance is urgently needed in our own time.
We live in a world that has grown increasingly comfortable with sin and increasingly uncomfortable with the truth. Human life is discarded, marriage and family are wounded, children are exposed to confusion, violence continues to claim innocent lives, and countless souls live as though God does not exist. Even within the Church, we can be tempted to accommodate ourselves to the spirit of the age rather than call the world to conversion in Jesus Christ.
Yet the answer to the darkness is not despair.
The Church has always understood that when sin abounds, the faithful are called not only to prayer but also to reparation. We bring the sins and wounds of the world before the Heart of Jesus and offer our prayers, fasting, sacrifices, and acts of penance for those who do not yet know Him, for those who have rejected Him, and for the offenses committed against His love.
During this month of August, traditionally dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we are reminded in a particular way of Our Lady’s call to prayer, penance, and reparation.
At Fatima, the Blessed Mother asked her children to pray and make sacrifices for sinners. Her message was not complicated. Souls are in danger, sin has consequences, and God desires our cooperation in His work of mercy and salvation. The Immaculate Heart of Mary always leads us to the Sacred Heart of her Son.
This is why our Nineveh Fast matters.
We do not fast because we believe our sacrifices somehow earn God’s mercy. We fast because we desire to turn our hearts more completely toward Him. We fast because Our Lord Himself taught us the necessity of prayer and fasting. And we fast because love willingly sacrifices for the beloved.
This month, I ask you to offer your Nineveh Fast especially in reparation for sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pray for the conversion of sinners and for those who have abandoned the Catholic faith. Pray for the protection of children and the restoration of marriage and family life. Pray for an end to abortion, trafficking, persecution, war, and every assault upon the dignity of the human person.
And pray fervently for the Church.
Pray that bishops will have the courage to proclaim the fullness of the Catholic faith without compromise. Pray that priests will be holy and faithful fathers to the souls entrusted to them. Pray for religious, seminarians, and all those discerning a vocation, that they may respond generously to the call of Christ. And pray that every member of the Church will rediscover the call to holiness, repentance, and fidelity to the Gospel.
Our Lady stood beneath the Cross when so many others had fled. She did not surrender to fear or despair. Her Immaculate Heart remained united perfectly to the Heart of her Son.
That is where we must stand as well.
The world does not need Catholics who have simply become better at describing the darkness. It needs saints who carry the light of Christ into it. It needs men and women willing to pray when others will not pray, to fast when others will not fast, to make reparation when others deny that there is anything for which we must repent, and to remain faithful when fidelity carries a cost.
Let us enter this month’s Nineveh Fast close to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asking her to lead us ever more deeply into the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
May our prayers and sacrifices be offered with humility and love for the conversion of sinners, the purification and renewal of the Church, and the salvation of souls.
And may we never forget that no darkness is greater than the light of Jesus Christ.
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland