Friday, March 8, 2013

Friday of the Third Week in Lent

(Hosea 14:2-10; Mark 12:28-34)

Hosea is considered a “minor prophet” because his writings are not as extensive as Isaiah’s, Jeremiah’s, or Ezekiel’s.  Yet he writes with extraordinary simplicity and beauty.  His audience is the northern kingdom of Israel, sometimes called Ephraim or Samaria.  Blessed with abundance, Israel dabbles in idolatry which Hosea symbolizes by taking a harlot for a wife. 

In today’s passage Hosea pleads with Israel to repent.  The nation is not to trust any more in foreign alliances, much less in golden idols.  Rather it should walk the path of God’s righteousness and count on Him.  Jesus gives a parallel formulation for arriving in the kingdom of God in today’s gospel. 

We may practice similar infidelity.  If we idolize actors or athletes, giving them our attention and not the word of God, Hosea’s warnings are for us.  Similarly, if we confide in gossipers or slanders, we are guilty of untoward alliances which call for repentance.

Homilette for Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Matthew 9:32-38)

A popular spiritual director used to say, “All people are good, and all people are hurting.” The biblical stories of creation and of the fall reveal the same truth. God breathes His very life into Adam, and for awhile he and his partner Eve walk with God in Paradise. Then their mistrust of God’s goodness ruptures the friendship. God’s subsequent interrogation reveals that the sin has also fractured their own relationship. Finally, the due punishment breaches the human relationship with nature.

In time some of the closeness with God that the first humans enjoyed is restored. Most notably, God leads the Hebrews through the desert for forty years forging a new covenant between God and humanity. But the people always return to evil ways. Hosea and the other prophets point out the fickleness of God’s people. They put their trust in metal images and scandalously satiate their passions.

Jesus will definitively mend the broken relationship. In today’s gospel passage he enables a deaf mute to speak as he has previously restored the sight of the blind and raised the dead. These events indicate God’s approaching the people in a new way. Jesus’ death on the cross will establish an unbreakable bond between God and humanity. For now Jesus points to the surety of the renewed relationship by urging his disciples to pray to God to supply the needs of the people.