for July 9
Thursday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

In the contest for the WORST ideas ever, this one is certainly in the top ten: The God of the Old Testament is the God of wrath, and the God of the New Testament is the God of mercy. Whoever came up with that gem, obviously never heard of the prophet Hosea—our first reading.

What we call the Old Testament, covers approximately fifteen hundred years of Jewish history, well over four times longer than our own nation’s history. It is a story of political turmoil, religious controversies, cultural revolutions, scandalous behavior and heroic opposition against corruption and exploitation—and much more. Throughout it all, the Jewish people are involved in an intensely personal ‘family’ relationship with the God they see as their judge and advocate and ultimately their savior and redeemer. True, things get out of hand at times—on both sides. But in the end, there is one consistent theme that always wins out and (racing ahead to the New Testament) receives unqualified endorsement in the teaching of Jesus.

Here in today’s first reading, the prophet Hosea describes—as appears frequently in the Jewish scriptures—a frustrated parent who cannot step away from an intensely intimate and faithful affection for his unruly child. In this case, the child is Israel and the parent is referred to respectfully as the LORD. This passage is a good basis for altering the false statement cited above to a more accurate description of the God of the Old Testament as a God of intense passion and overpowering emotion. 

Of course, whenever we try to imagine God, we cannot help but project our own nature and character onto the divine being. As theologians over the ages have consistently reminded us, this is logically incorrect. God is always infinitely beyond our understanding. And yet even the Bible, or more accurately, especially the Bible, indulges in this kind of projection. I have seen in my own life the intense loyalty that a father can feel for a wayward son (and yes, that a mother, too, can feel), a loyalty and affection that surpasses all rational reckoning. Our meager natural understanding, Scripture tells us, finds it helpful to appeal to that human experience to glimpse, if just in a pale and blurred picture, the depth of God’s love for each of us. Jesus himself was clearly taken up with this process when he crafted what we call his parable on the prodigal son.

There’s much food for prayer here in today’s first reading. Don’t worry about getting all bogged down in Old Testament history. That background is important and frequently very enlightening, but the words of the prophet can be applied to us directly, in our own world of turmoil and moral and spiritual failing. “They did not know that I was their healer,” the Lord says of his people. They are words of particular poignancy for us today as we suffer from this pandemic and grieve for our wounded nation and a church that seems sometimes so crippled. Let’s remember today: GOD IS OUR HEALER.  That idea is certainly in the running for the BEST ideas of all time.
—Walter Modrys SJ

Today’s readings can be found at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.