July 8, 2016 - Friday

Assyria will not save us,
nor will we mount horses;d
We will never again say, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion. (Hosea 14:4 NABRE)

The prophet Hosea preached his message about 750 years before Christ was born. He began the Old Testament tradition of describing the relation between the Lord and Israel in terms of marriage. The New Testament uses the marriage imagery to describe the union between Christ and the Church. For Hosea, marriage is a symbol of the covenant between the Lord and Israel. Hosea speaks about the first love, the short period of Israel’s loyalty in the desert, which was then followed by a long history of unfaithfulness lasting until his day. Hosea accuses Israel of three crimes in particular. Instead of putting their trust in the Lord alone, the people break the covenant: (1) by counting on their own military strength, (2) by making treaties with foreign powers (Assyria and Egypt), and (3) by running after the Baals, the gods of fertility. Israel thus forgets that the Lord is its strength, its covenant partner, and giver of fertility.*

The good intentions stated in today's verse are a promise by the people of Israel to reverse its sins: no more reliance on “Assyria,” i.e., on foreign alliances, on “horses,” i.e., on human power, and on idolatry. Israel will trust in the Lord alone.*


Today, I will remember that the Lord is my strength and the source of all I need.


Saint Gregory Grassi and Companions, martyred during the Boxer Uprising of 1900, pray for us.