Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 8, 2010 - Thursday in the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[Hosea 11:1-4, 8e-9 and Matthew 10:7-15]Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like who who raises an infant to his cheeks; yet, though I stopped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. [Hosea]
The Book of Hosea is very much about seeking, knowing and loving God! At times the relationship between God and Israel is described as spousal or parental - very intimate and personal! Yet, Israel spurned this love. They sought the idols of neighboring nations and peoples. Their continued infidelity is personalized in the relationship between Hosea and his wandering wife, Gomer. In today's passage, it is personalized in the picture of a father caring for a child. Our modern prayer uses the image of "Father" for God often. We seem to leave the "mother" image to Mary. In either case, one wonders if the image has the power to command our feelings as well as our obedience. For some, difficult relationships with parents make the image problematic. The same is true for marriage in our day and age. Both images are meant to convey a love and knowledge that is profound. The loss of this sense of our relationship to God has resulted in a kind of "cultural deism" which consigns God to "a distant past or a distant heaven" - a phrase used by Pope John Paul II. It takes effort to recover this sense of personal relationship, but the rewards can be great. AMEN
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