You’ve been out having a great time. Following every wish, fulfilling every desire. You are living in the moment … eating, drinking, being merry. After all, what happens in Vegas …
And still, back home, He waits. Patiently and lovingly, ready to forgive and forget.
Still, you wander…
You know the deal. You know the difference between man’s laws and God’s laws. And still, you wander. You let your flesh dictate every move, you let your emotions run wild.
There is little room left for wisdom.
And still, back home, He waits.
He waits for you to return to real joy, real fulfillment and happiness – as only He can provide.
In today’s Liturgical readings, Hosea writes of a God who is like a spouse to his bride, Jerusalem. A husband to a wife – like America – who seems to be on a bender, away from her original vows and on a track toward self-worship and creating her own rules.
“I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.”
God wants to draw us away from the bright lights and big cities. Away from the hustle bustle that keeps us too busy to contemplate our true happiness. He wants us to escape … and run into his arms.
But are we listening … or is the music too loud?
Hosea writes of a God who is like a loving spouse, waiting for the day when his lover will return. Rather than pacing back and forth and tapping his watch in anticipation, he is patient. He is tender and understanding.
God shows us an unshakable fidelity despite our many weaknesses and sins. His love is unchanging, no matter how much we have done to break the faith and the bonds that originally tied us to him in a spiritual marriage.
“She shall call me my husband, and never again, my Baal.”
Hosea preached in a time when his chosen people had abandoned His love for the worldly pleasures of a fertility god (Baal), worshiped by pagans. The cult of Baal was more than just a distraction or a temporary weekend in Vegas … it had grown to the point of contaminating the very worship of God. It had soaked into society and had begun to change the very norms that had defined it.
Like many prophets then and now, Hosea condemned this turning of our backs on God; but also offered hope that a loving spouse would never turn his own back on his bride.
God does not draw us out to the “desert” so that we die of thirst. No, he entices us to a quiet place where we can make room for his love and his grace to soak into our hearts, replacing the Baals of today. He wants to draw us to Him. We need only be willing to hear the call and take the steps in the right direction.
In the Gospel today, the bleeding woman was not only willing to take those steps, she was also aggressive about it … reaching out to touch the cloak of Jesus as he walked by.
Jesus heals two people in today’s Gospel – the bleeding woman who reached out to Him and the dead girl who He reached out to for resurrection.
A 2-way deal.
God wants us to want Him. He wants us to reach out and touch his cloak. Meanwhile, He will never stop seeking us in the desert of his uninterrupted love and compassion.
No matter where you are today – deep into the throes of big-city passions or standing at the edge of the desert, searching for salvation – God wants you to know that your heart can be changed today.
Make your new vows … renew your old ones. Do whatever it takes to experience the true happiness that only God knows how to provide.
