There is a famous scene in the Indiana Jones films, where Indiana is faced with a riddle that seems impossible to solve: “Only the penitent man will pass.” To discover the answer to this riddle was life or death for Indiana. Many who came before him had died on their journey because they failed to deduce the answer to the riddle. He figured out that the solution to the puzzle was that he had to go forward on the path on his knees – as a penitent man. Only in this way was he able to avoid danger and live.
This is the same wisdom that the prophet Hosea shares with us today in the first reading. “Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.” How are the just able to walk, but the sinners stumble on the very same path? For Hosea, the just can walk through repentance, they are made whole through asking the Lord for forgiveness. On the path of the Lord, only the penitent one may pass.
Hosea preaches this wisdom to his people, and he preaches it to us. Where do the pathways of the Lord cause us to stumble, and how can humility and repentance offer us a pathway forward in our Christian life?