9 July 2020
Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The eleventh chapter of Hosea has a reminder, a threat and a promise. This is the reminder: “When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). God reminds his people that he relates to them as a Father relates to a son, and that it was he who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Then follows a threat: Israel “shall return to the land of Egypt, Assyria shall be his king, because they have refused to repent” (Hosea 11:5). God is pointing to the slavery that is looming because his people will not repent. That is to say, they refuse to take a hard, critical look at their lives and make the changes they need. Then follows the promise: “Out of Egypt they shall come trembling, like birds, like doves, from the land of Assyria; And I will resettle them in their homes” (Hosea 11:11). God invites his people to put their hope in him, and to trust that he it is who will deliver them from slavery and bring them back to their homes, to the place they truly belong.
This is a cycle in the spiritual life. Reminder-threat-promise. Remember where you came from, who God is and what he has done for you. Realize the destruction that threatens you if you turn from God’s path. Put your hope in God’s promise, that even if you and the people around you make a big mess of it, God will not abandon you in the end. The last part, the promise, is that we will come out of slavery “trembling like birds, like doves.” This is the liturgy of the humble man. He trembles like a bird because he knows what it is like to be shaken by various forms of slavery. He knows how fragile he is, and yet he sings like a bird, and he is free to soar aloft. “Consider the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26).