6 July 2016
Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In one way, shape or form, we are all seeking comfort. The average person on the street is occupied with seeking earthly comforts, such as love from human beings, entertainment, fine clothing, beautiful music, and so forth. The saints are occupied with seeking heavenly comforts, such as love of God and the knowledge of His will and the joy of the Holy Spirit, and so forth.
The prophet Hosea wanted to turn average people into saints. To do so, in his tenth chapter, he pointed out three problems with riches, or, in other words, with earthly comforts. First, they lead to idolatry, because earthly comforts do not satisfy. They only increase the desire for additional comfort. Eventually personal comfort gets ranked above God Himself, which is idolatry. “God shall break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars,” says Hosea.
And he also says “their heart is false.” This is the second problem with those who seek earthly comforts. They get to the point where their desire for comfort is strong, but they know, deep down, that they will not be fulfilled, so they lie to themselves and sometimes to others.
The third problem: obsession with political leaders. Since those obsessed with comfort do not look to God to govern them, they must look to someone else, but they always find their messianic hopes frustrated. In their alarm they say “we have no king!” They did not heed Hosea’s warning: “the king of Samaria shall disappear like foam upon the waters.”
May Jesus Christ, the only real Messiah, make our hearts true, and give us the grace to seek first his kingdom.