Thus says the LORD: I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt. She shall call me “My husband,” and never again “My baal.” (Hos 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070422.cfm
In the daily Mass we begin reading the Prophet Hosea. Hosea and Amos were contemporaries. Hosea is from the northern kingdom and prophesied there. Hosea uses the image of adultery (being unfaithful) as a sign of Israel’s relationship with God. Today is also the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the United States. Perhaps, Hosea and Amos still have words to speak to us today.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Monday, Week XIV, Ordinary Time, July 4
