THE PROPHET CALLED TO DEMONSTRATE THE WORD OF GOD
MONDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Hos 2:16,17-18,21-22; Ps 145:2-9; Mt 9:18-26
The Lord’s marriage to his People
We
regard prophet Hosea as the prophet of Yahweh’s faithful love or marriage
covenant with Israel, his people. In the life of Hosea, we hear Yahweh speaking
to his people. As we mentioned in yesterday’s reflection, we measure the
success of the mission of a prophet by his conformity of life to his message to
the people. Yahweh calls a prophet not to be a detached spokesperson who
proclaims the word of God and then detaches himself to continue his personal
life. No, the prophet is the first recipient of the word of God and is required
to act as a host to the will of God. This means total conformity with the will
of God and transmitting it faithfully to the people. The prophet instantiates
the will of God and makes it as concrete as possible for the people. Though the
word of God is the most powerful force in being, God does not send his word to
destroy the human will but rather coerces us gently with love to achieve his
will in our lives. This manner of acting is the same as God’s dealing with a
prophet. The prophet must fall in love with the word of God and desire to do
his will in all things. By faithfully conforming his life to the word of God,
the prophet makes it possible for the people to follow him and become prophetic
people.
God
called Hosea to remind his people, Israel, of their marriage covenant with him
when he brought them out from the land of Egypt. Their habitation in the
Promised Land of Canaan and the amassment of too much material wealth caused
the people to forget God and set their hearts on riches. Hosea demonstrated
with his marriage how sinful and damaging their unfaithfulness was to Yahweh’s
holy name and love. God asked Hosea to woo and marry a prostitute to show how
Yahweh intends to woo Israel back to faithfulness to the marriage covenant with
Yahweh. “I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak
to her heart. I am going to give her back her vineyards and make the Valley of
Achor a gateway of hope. There she will respond to me as she did when she was
young, as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.” To be lured into the
wilderness is not such a pleasant experience, for the wilderness is an arid
place. God removes the comfort and pleasure we derive from riches and creatures
to make us aware of his presence and understand his divine will for us.
The
gospel gives illustrations of this situation. We reflected on this gospel
passage recently, yet the word of God is rich beyond measure; one can always
draw something new from the passage. The wilderness experience of the official
who recognised the presence of Jesus Christ and came to implore his mercy was
the loss of his daughter. “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your
hand on her and her life will be saved.” The loss of his daughter put him in a
situation that only God could help him. That made him recognise the presence of
God in Jesus Christ. His faith expressed that much, for only God can restore
life from death. The second person with a wilderness experience was the
woman with the issue of blood. God, through her haemorrhage, placed her in a
situation where nothing she possessed could be of help to her. She became aware
of Jesus Christ as the presence of God to solve her problem. She expressed her
faith when she said to herself, “If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well
again.” God’s faithful love for us is eternal; he is kind and full of compassion.
When he turns our reality upside down and our noon into darkness, we must
remember that his purpose is to bring us back to his presence. He sent his only
Begotten Son into the world that we may learn again to love him with all our
wills, hearts, and minds.
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