St. Jonah Stuffed Gourd

History

In the last paragraph of Jonah’s story, while he sits and watches expectantly for God’s judgement upon Nineveh, God gives Jonah a plant for shade. But in order to teach Jonah a lesson, the Lord causes the plant to die the next day. Thanks to St. Jerome’s translation of the Bible, this is the reading that the majority of our modern translations give. But St. Augustine contended that Jerome mistranslates this text when he calls the plant something like an ivy bush. Augustine argued that the original Hebrew text labeled it a gourd plant.  This seemingly insignificant difference became a full-fledged dispute between the two scholars. In the end, Jerome conceded.

Many remember this dispute in their reflection upon Jonah’s story—for example, even our beloved Lutheran artist Albrecht Dürer makes note of this in his woodcut of St. Jerome in His Study. In the upper lefthand corner you can see a large gourd pictured, mocking Jerome and his highly-regarded translation efforts.

 Therefore, throughout history, the Church has remembered Jonah and associated him with gourds, even giving special symbolical placement to the gourd in art. Gourds were also historically used within Christian pilgrimages as a symbol of God’s mercy and the Resurrection. Christians traveling to visit relics in various places during the Middle Ages would take a hollowed-out gourd as a canteen in order to help remind themselves not to treasure the fleeting pleasures of life that come “into being in a night and perish in a night” (Jonah 4:10).

St. Jonah Stuffed Gourd

The gourd family spans many summer and winter squashes, giving various options for how you might integrate a gourd into a meal for St. Jonah’s day. We picked Mexican stuffed zucchini, but other options might include other stuffed gourds, pumpkin-flavored items such as pie or bread, acorn or butternut squash baked with butter and brown sugar, fried zucchini chips, and so on and so forth!

Ingredients

1 large or 2 small gourds of choice (zucchini, acorn squash, pumpkin, etc.)

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 pound ground beef

1 8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 can of corn

½ cup cheese

1 teaspoon salt

cilantro for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, add the oil to a deep-rimmed pan and sauté the onion and pepper. Then brown the meat, adding in the salt when browning.
4. To the pan add the taco seasoning and tomato sauce, stir, and cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Mix in the corn and place the mixture in the zucchini halves, top with cheese, and place back in the oven for 20 more minutes. Enjoy!

References:
1. Vitz, Evelyn Birge. A Continual Feast: A Cookbook to Celebrate the Joys of Family and Faith Throughout the Christian Year. Ignatius Press. 1985.
2. Horvat, Marian T., “The Gourd: A Sign of Christ’s Resurrection & Man’s Penance,” Tradition in Action. 2020.