Gospel (Lk 11,29-32) - At that time, while the crowds were gathering, Jesus began to say: «This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was a sign to those of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will also be a sign to this generation. On the day of judgment, the queen of the South will rise up against the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, here is one greater than Solomon. On the day of judgment, the inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up against this generation and condemn it, because they converted at Jonah's preaching. And behold, here is one greater than Jonah."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

Jesus is surrounded by many people. The evangelist speaks of "crowds", in the plural, who crowd around Jesus. As then, today too many are looking for words that comfort and help them not to succumb to the many fears that make life difficult. In recent years, when we were at the mercy of a pandemic that was disrupting the entire planet, we learned to raise our eyes to the sky to ask for help. We felt in our flesh the fear of being overwhelmed. In large cities - like Nineveh at the time of Jonah - the confusion was even more serious. And even today, life on the outskirts of megacities is still very hard, very violent and hits the poor like the elderly and young people with greater severity, for whom the door to the future is closed. We see physical and mental imbalances, poverty and marginalization, desperation and anguish growing. And, as in the time of Jesus, people ask for a sign, an event, more or less prodigious, that can free us from anguish. Sometimes we ask for a "savior" who can take everything into his own hands with the illusion that he can magically offer - in reality he means authoritatively - a solution. There are no magical events that change your life, there are no sudden fortunes that make the days more peaceful. There is a need for a true "sign", a true Savior who helps to change hearts, to make them more supportive, more welcoming, more capable of loving. This sign is Jesus. It is He who changes hearts. There is a need - and this is the teaching of the evangelical passage - for the streets and squares of our cities to be crossed again by the preaching of the Gospel, as happened in Nineveh with the preaching of Jonah. The Gospel helps to change the heart, to make it of flesh and no longer of stone. The Christians of this generation are called to communicate the Gospel of love to today's generation. The Gospel is the only true force that makes men and women more human. It is the only word that makes love grow and takes away loneliness and fear. Pope Francis insists that the Church "goes out", so that it can meet today's crowds, like those who met Jesus then. It is urgent to go out to preach the Gospel of love with deeds and words in the great urban suburbs and in the existential ones. It is a responsibility that involves all disciples of Jesus, not professionals. The preaching of the Gospel and the love for the poor are the "sign" that Jesus continues to be the one who saves from sadness and death. The evangelical page warns us that Nineveh changed its life with the preaching of Jonah. The Gospel is a much stronger word than that of the ancient prophet.