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I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the depth of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. Jonah 2:2

Thus, when He urges with His blameless life, the Father answers Him and lifts us up with Him above all affliction. He descended to our lowly status, He Who is without sin, so that we become in Him a source of happiness to the Father. He hears us in our affliction and raises us to Him. St. Jerome says, “God descended, He was humbled for us so that we may ascend in safety and confidence.”

Jonah called on God in his affliction and was rewarded by an immediate response because he saw himself arising not only from the fish’s belly, but also from the depths of Hades with the crucified Christ! At this point, Jonah uses the past tense, “He answered me… You heard my voice.” This is a manner of speaking that shows true enjoyment through symbolism and a confident manner that has no doubt.

Jeremiah the prophet experienced the same feelings and comprehended the same concepts when he was thrown into the pit: “I called on Your Name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice. Do not hide Your ear from my sighing or my cry for help.” (Lam. 3:55-56).

For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me.” (Jonah 2:3)

Jonah realized that it was really God who threw him into the sea and not the sailors; but amazingly enough, when he descended to the depth, he did not find himself succumbing to the water pressure with all its perils. Rather, he found himself surrounded by the holy river, irrigating the perilous sea and blessing it with a multitude of spiritual fruits. About this, the psalmist said, “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God.” (Ps. 46:4). However, in the midst of the bitter hardship “in the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight.” (Ps. 94:19) Sweet river water replaces the bitter salty water, and instead of the crushing weight of the sea upon me, I am surrounded with joy and happiness.

The “heart of the sea” to which Jonah was thrown, to its bitter depths, is the depth of the bitter Cross in which Christ entered as a redeeming Sacrifice for the whole world. Through it, He offers sweet water of baptism, granting life, thus a river surrounded Him (i.e., surrounds His church, which is His Body, the river of baptism, or the River Jordan). This scene enraptured the hearts of the prophets. Ezekiel said of the church, “Then He brought me back to the door of the Temple, and there was water, flowing from under the door of the Temple… and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed… And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the river goes, will live… along the banks of the river... and it will grow all kinds of trees… whose fruit will be used for food and whose leaves will be used for healing.” (Ez. 47)

Our sins cast Christ, out of His love for us, into the depth of the sea, to carry unto Himself the Cross. He exchanged the salty seawater for the sweet river water. Thus, through the Cross, He granted us the flowing river of His Holy Spirit, which quenches the thirst in our souls and makes it bear fruits and grants us healing. Thus, the Cross depicts two complete pictures – one of the rage of God against sin, which cost the Lord His life, and the other of God’s overwhelming love that ruptured fountains of abundant grace…

*This excerpt is taken from a larger work by Father Tadros Malaty entitled "Jonah".