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Sometime around
2,700 years ago, a young Jewish fellow named Hosea fell in love with the
girl of his dreams. “She was a woman with a history,” is the way polite
folk would describe his beloved’s life, because the woman was a
prostitute. And, worse yet, not just any prostitute but most likely a
cultic prostitute, one who plied her trade for pagan religious
purposes. Certainly not a nice Jewish girl!
Hosea’s beloved’s
name was Gomer. And, because Hosea was so desperately in love with her,
Gomer’s personal history made not one whit of a difference to Hosea. To
be sure, all of this certainly did matter to Hosea’s mother and other
family members, friends, and some acquaintances. Yet, despite
their protestations to the contrary, Hosea was intransigent. So,
he went ahead and married Gomer.
As was customary
at the time and in Jesus’ time as well, the couple did not go on a
honeymoon. Instead, all of Hosea’s and Gomer’s families, relatives, and
friends gathered for a feast—what they called “the wedding feast”—which
consisted not of one elaborate catered meal at a fancy-schmantzy
hall—like The Presidential on Route 202 and Germantown Pike—but a
week-long celebration at the groom’s house consisting of meals, adult
beverages, story telling, catching up on the family gossip, music,
dancing, and sleeping off hangovers…only to start off all over again,
sort of like on one of those eight-day cruises. During the days and
nights, relatives and friends kept the food and drink in steady supply
while the groom’s friends covered for their buddy at work. The idea was
that the wedding feast was a “once in a lifetime” event that everyone
would fully participate in and contribute to. It was a time to
celebrate definitely not a time to
fast.
When teaching
about God and God’s love for His people, Jesus used the metaphors of
marriage and family quite deliberately, because these are the only
images that accurately capture the depth and faithfulness of God’s love
for His people that Jesus was sent to communicate. And, it was with
these metaphors in mind that Jesus confronted the religious authorities
in today’s gospel. Religious rituals—like fasting—have their place.
But, Jesus said in scolding the religious authorities, these rituals do
not supersede the feast God has already prepared for His people from the
beginning of time. In effect, Jesus said, fulfilling external
requirements without experiencing what those requirements are really all
about is nothing short of being hypocritical…“old wine skins” and “old
wine,” not “new wine skins” and “new wine.” Or, as St. Paul wrote
concerning this matter to the Corinthians, “…our qualification comes
from God, who has indeed qualified us….not of [the letter of the law]
but of [the spirit of the law]; for the letter brings death, but the
Spirit gives life.”
Following their
wedding feast, Hosea and Gomer set about their life together, as most
newlywed couples do. As citizens of the northern kingdom, they enjoyed
prosperity and all of its attendant creature comforts. But, these
allowed materialism gradually to erode the Jewish people’s faith in God
and their fidelity to the Covenant. Love of things slowly but steadily
became more important to the Jewish people than love of God and
neighbor.
Much to Hosea’s
anguish, he discovered one day that his wife Gomer was engaged in an
adulterous affair. The letter of the law prescribed by Moses mandated
that Hosea was to bring charges against his wife and, if found guilty,
the townspeople would stone her to death in the public square.
Upset and unsure
about what he should do, Hosea decided to travel out into the desert and
to pray before making a decision. What Hosea did know was that his
“wedding feast” had turned into a “nightmare” and, where love had filled
his heart, Hosea was now feeling rage, anger, and bitterness surging
within. All Hosea really wanted was for God to help Hosea make sense of
the tragedy which had befallen him.
As Hosea prayed,
he contemplated his marriage to Gomer and their life together. While
many thoughts were ruminating in his mind, Hosea recalled one thing he
had thought about frequently during his marriage but had never really
done anything about: how he noticed Gomer gradually becoming charmed by
and then taking ever-greater delight in all of the material comforts she
had become accustomed to, largely due to Hosea’s hard work. For his
part, Hosea desperately wanted to satisfy what were growing into his
wife’s now-insatiable desires, because all Hosea really wanted in the
depths of his heart was for Gomer to be happy. So, Hosea worked even
harder and harder so that his wife would have everything she wanted.
But, in so doing, Hosea now realized as he contemplated these things in
the desert, all the while it was Hosea himself who was enabling Gomer to
turn gradually turning away from Hosea and to seek happiness and
pleasure in everything and everywhere else. That was when Hosea
discovered the adulterous affair. Now, however, it was too late,
according to Moses’ law. “If I only knew then what I know now,” Hosea
thought to himself. “I’d certainly would have done things differently.”
Something else
also happened to Hosea out there in the desert. He became more
God-like, that is, more like the “Bridegroom” who Jesus described
in today’s gospel. Ever so slowly, Hosea increasingly realized how
deeply he still loved Gomer, even if she wouldn’t return his love. When
he realized this, Hosea found his rage, anger, and bitterness melting
away and being transformed into pity for Gomer and the tragic situation
she had gotten herself into and that Hosea had unwittingly contributed
to. Hosea loved Gomer who had betrayed him; but, that wasn’t what now
mattered. Hosea desperately wanted Gomer to leave her sin behind and
return to Hosea. “All would be forgiven, wiped out—as if it had never
happened—because I would be with my beloved and my beloved would be with
me.” These were the sentiments filling Hosea’s heart.
Reflecting upon
this experience, Hosea realized that God was speaking directly to him.
“I will lead you into the desert and speak to your heart…,” God said to
Hosea, “I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in
mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord.”
Hosea’s
reflections didn’t stop there, however.
As Hosea
contemplated how Gomer’s desire for prosperity and comfort had seduced
her to the point that Gomer grew to love things more than her husband
and how Hosea did everything he possibly could to provide his wife more
and more of everything she wanted, Hosea suddenly realized how both of
them represented exactly what was transpiring throughout the northern
kingdom. That is, Hosea now clearly saw how prosperity had made the
kingdom’s citizens desire creature comforts more than God, how crass
materialism provided them convenient excuses to equivocate vows and
commitments, and how his fellow citizens were making God increasingly
irrelevant as they went about their lives each day. Unless Hosea’s
fellow citizens would recognize their sin and change their hearts, Hosea
saw so clearly, the fate that had befallen his marriage would befall the
northern kingdom! And, the broken heart Hosea suffered from Gomer’s sin
and his enabling it would be the broken heart that God would suffer due
to His people’s sins.
Today’s reading
from the Book of the Prophet Hosea builds upon this startling
realization as Hosea tells his fellow citizens that they are in very big
trouble. Hosea likens God to a bridegroom who has prepared the wedding
feast. But, this Bridegroom, like Hosea, has discovered His spouse—the
Jewish people—engaged in an adulterous affair, loving everything but
God. This Bridegroom—like Hosea—is desperate that His beloved recognize
their sin, change their heart, and return to Him. This Bridegroom—like
Hosea—cannot bear the thought that if His beloved does not repent, death
will certainly ensue. This Bridegroom—like Hosea—is moved pity and
knows that His marriage can be saved. But, this Bridegroom knows that
it will not be pity that will bring about the miracle of
reconciliation. No, it will take conversion. And, if the bride does
convert, this Bridegroom—like Hosea—will forgive everything and their
reconciliation will usher in a second wedding feast to celebrate the
renewal of vows, of love, and of mutual and lasting fidelity. God—the
Divine Bridegroom—wants us, individually and collectively, to return, to
rekindle the youthful love that we once shared, and to feast with our
Beloved, not for a week but without end.
The good news is
that, even though we do go astray, God does not give up on us. God
remains ever hopeful that we will change and make straight our ways so
that God can throw the wedding feast that He has already prepared. That
is why, in today’s gospel, Jesus reminds his disciples that
participating in the feast of God’s kingdom is not simply a matter of
participating in religious rituals where we accuse ourselves and confess
infidelity. While that is an important part, Jesus teaches that what’s
more important is conversion of heart, that is, a re-ordering of
priorities and a commitment to mutual love and lasting fidelity.
That is why the simple truth is that, as we seek greater happiness and
pleasure in things rather than in God, it is we who give up on God and
not the other way around.
Like Gomer and
the northern kingdom of Israel, the allure of materialism—and all of the
creature comforts that prosperity makes possible—lights up our eyes,
tickles our fancy, and sparks our interest. In the process, however, we
ever so gradually and imperceptibly become adulterers who, despite all
of our protestations to the contrary and participation in religious
rituals, love all of these “goodies” more than we love either God or
neighbor.
How often have we
found ourselves sitting out in the desert, with hearts full of rage,
anger, and bitterness because what made us happy no longer does? How
often have we implored God to help us make sense out of the messes of
our own making that suddenly thrust themselves into our lives and
seemingly from out of nowhere? And—this is the very hard part—instead
of pointing the finger of blame at the person (or persons) we believe
are the source of our unhappiness, how often have we gradually come to
realize that we unwittingly have contributed to the source of our
unhappiness?
That’s what this
desert is about. Alone with God to lead us, we learn that our
unhappiness oftentimes is not something that others have done to us but
that we have unwittingly enabled.
Our attachment to
things, to comforts, and success can unwittingly detour us in our quest
to love God and neighbor. Like Hosea, before we make decisions about
what we should do—as God’s law requires—we can journey out into the
desert and—by being alone and quiet so that God can speak to us—learn
how, by clinging to the past and to old and outmoded excuses (those “old
wineskins”), we never really have lived and loved even though we may
have felt happy and content (the “old wine”). The desert is the place
where God can help us to envision the real person He created us to be
and who we need to be if we are to fulfill our personal vocations (those
“new wineskins”) by embracing love of God and neighbor as a way of life
and, then, living it out in our daily lives (the “new wine”). In this
desert, we can learn what no longer works for us and to discard these
attitudes and behaviors. The desert, then, is that forlorn place where
there are no distractions or excuses where we are forced to face the
truth and to make decisions about how we will lead our lives.
God sent Jesus to
call us to conversion, to cast aside our old self and put on a new self,
to leave behind the life of sin and to enter into the wedding feast that
God has already prepared for us from the beginning of the world. Jesus
came to espouse us in right, in justice, in love, and in mercy. For our
part, we must not delude ourselves into thinking that we can keep our
old life of sin—the old garment—filled with love of self, while at the
same time pretending to be holy by “patching the old garment” with
religious rituals or moments of prayer. The old life of sin and the
reality of God’s wedding feast tear away from one another, rendering our
all of our pretensions impotent and protestations silent. As far as
Jesus is concerned, our conversion must be whole and entire, a complete
turning away from self to love of God and neighbor.
Our challenge,
then, is to enter into the desert and to open ourselves to God who is
pursuing us because he so desperately in love with us. In the desert,
we need to pray for insight into who we really are—for who we’ve allowed
ourselves to become—and to get a grip on our choices, our lives, and our
responsibilities for contributing to sin by not stopping it when sin
first emerges in our lives, our marriages, our families, our workplaces,
and our world. Then, we will know better what we are to do, just as
Hosea learned in the desert about his new role as prophet to God’s
people.
This will require
reordering our lives aright by renewing our vows of mutual and lasting
fidelity to God and, then, entering into the wedding feast that God has
prepared from the beginning of the world. Fortified by the grace
of having met God who is so desperately in love with us, we will then be
able to live out our personal vocations in the midst of those people God
has entrusted to our ministry as we call them to conversion.
This is how, as
St. Paul says, we become a “letter of Christ,” one that is “written not
in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but
on tablets that are hearts of flesh.”
A brief commercial
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HOMILY
