Tuesday of the
Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Hosea 8:4-7.11-13; Matthew 9:32-38)
Several years ago two economists
surveyed fallen-away Catholics about why they left the
Church. Unsurprisingly, many said that they no longer practice the
faith because of the Church’s rules. For
example, they did not understand why divorced and remarried Catholics could not
receive Holy Communion. The survey uncovered other reasons as well,
but high moral standards seemed to discourage Catholics as much as anything
else. In today’s first reading the prophet Hosea chastises Israel
for abandoning the faith of their ancestors for similar reasons.
Hosea was an eighth century B.C. prophet who preached in
the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It was a
time of prosperity. But rather than
turning to the Lord in gratitude, the people fancied the gods of their pagan
neighbors. The pagan deities were much more
indulgent than the Lord. Where the Lord
insisted that the people control their sensual appetites, paganism extolled
licentiousness.
In Jesus the Lord’s commands are brought to
fulfillment. His new commandments may
seem to us harder to obey. We may ask, “How
can we never look at a beautiful woman or handsome man with desire?” and “How
can we never resist an insult from another?”
But we must remember that Jesus is there to help us do the seemingly
impossible.
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