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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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In Lent we often speak about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. But Lent is also a search for truth: not just ideas about God, but a deeper knowledge of God himself, and a clearer decision about whether we will live as his people. In today’s Scriptures, the Lord reveals two great truths. First, God binds himself to his people in a covenant—a promise he began with Abraham that he intended not for Abraham alone, but for every generation, including our own. God commits himself to us: “I will be your God, and you will be my people.”
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The reading from the Book of Wisdom that we heard today will return to us on Good Friday. It speaks of a righteous person who becomes the target of resentment and hostility—not because he has done wrong, but because his goodness exposes the darkness around him. His very life is a challenge to those who reject God. They plot against him, tear at his reputation, and test him to see if God will defend him. Yet, as we hear elsewhere in Scripture, he does not retaliate. He turns the other cheek.
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“Come back to me, with all your heart; don’t let fear keep us apart…” These lyrics from the hymn Hosea kept echoing in my mind as I reflected on today’s readings from the prophet Hosea and from Mark’s Gospel. Come back to me. To appreciate Hosea’s words, we must remember that he was married to an unfaithful wife—a living symbol of Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness. Thus, we hear God’s message to His people at the beginning of the reading from Hosea: return to God. Hosea does not focus on Israel’s past failures; instead, he speaks of hope, healing, and restoration. Come back to God and leave behind the false gods and idols that once drew you away. Return to God Hosea tells us how to begin this return. God asks us to set aside our reliance on false gods and instead “take words with you.” In other words, He teaches us how to confess—how to speak honestly to Him, heart to heart. God desires personal relationship, not ritual sacrifices. He invites us to approach Him as we are, not as we think we must be before we dare to come near. God asks for our whole heart and nothing more. He assures us that He will listen to us, love us freely, and not condemn us for the misdeeds of our past. Hosea uses agricultural images to help us understand what it means to return to God. To return is to become rooted in His love, to give off the fragrance of blossoms, and to bear fruit in our lives. When we repent and seek God’s forgiveness, He not only forgives; He restores, beautifies, strengthens, and blesses. God Is Our Refuge In every age, God has been our refuge, though this truth is not always fully understood or embraced. “Let the one who is wise understand.” Hosea reminds us. “Straight are the paths of the Lord.” The Lord asks only two things of us: love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. The just walk this path confidently, while others still stumble. Yet even to those who stumble, God extends the same gentle invitation: come home, come back to Me, and do not let fear keep us apart.
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On this first day following the Advent days of Hope and assurance, the Christmas season of wonderment and new birth, the manifestation of the Light that shown for the whole world to see, we meet Hannah, a woman who is barren, heartbroken and carrying a sorrow she could hardly speak aloud. But standing beside her is Elkanah, her husband, who sees her pain and refuses to let her suffer alone. He doesn’t dismiss her grief. He stands by her and offers something that could appear to be inconsequential but isn’t. He offered her a listening heart, compassion and his presence. “Why do you weep? Am I not more to you than ten sons? His words may have fallen short, but no human comfort ever fully fills the deepest ache, but it can reveal a heart that wants to lift the burden from someone who is loved.
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As we approach the final days before our celebration of Christmas, we are reminded once again of the many ways that God has been sending messages and messengers to us in advance of his coming among us as a man. Time and again, different prophets spoke to us of God’s concern and compassion for his people, assuring them that he walked with them. We were given an example of one such prophet today in the person of Malachi, whom God sent to assure people that He would send a messenger to prepare their hearts, restore relationships, and turn them back to God. The messenger God is sending would not simply announce news; he would shape hearts. In Luke’s gospel today, the prophecies of God took flesh in the birth of John the Baptist. We heard the neighbors who asked, “What will this child be?” The answer was clear: John is the messenger that Malachi spoke of. John’s very name, God is gracious - announces the new area of salvation. His life becomes a bridge between the old and the new. John is the one who calls people back to God, reconciles hearts, points away from himself and towards Jesus, lives simply, boldly, and faithfully.
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One of the things that characterized Jesus' life was that he was about searching and saving lives. As we celebrate Mass today, we will discover that Saints Peter and Paul were also about searching and saving lives, as did Saint Rose Duchesne. Hopefully, in some small measure, we followers of Jesus seek to do the same. We heard the remarkable story of the encounter Jesus had with a man named Zacchaeus, who was small in stature, and climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus as he passed by. We were told that he was a tax collector, which meant he probably did not have too many friends among his acquaintances. However, what we needed to note was the sacrifice Zacchaeus made in climbing that tree. He was a professional and had a significant employment. He had to have been well-known, and yet here he was, willing to risk his professional standing, submit to ridicule from those who knew him.
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