SPEAKER_00: If someone asks you to summarize the entire Bible in one sentence, what would you say?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think many people might answer it's the story of God's laws, or it's the story of God's people, or perhaps even it's the story of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: All those are true.
SPEAKER_00: But today's reading suggests an even more beautiful answer.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a story of a God who never stops pursuing the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: In Hosea we hear, I will allure her, I will lead her into the desert, I will speak to her heart, I will espouse you to me forever.
SPEAKER_00: These are not words of an angry judge, these are words of a bridegroom.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Hosea gives us one of the most remarkable images.
SPEAKER_00: God describes his relationship with his people as a marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because no human relationship better expresses what God desires with us.
SPEAKER_00: Not simply obedience, not merely respect, but love.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful, personal, covenantal love.
SPEAKER_00: To understand Hosea, we have to know something about his life.
SPEAKER_00: God asked the prophet to do something almost unimaginable.
SPEAKER_00: He was told to marry a woman named Gomer who would prove unfaithful to him.
SPEAKER_00: Her infidelity became a living parable of Israel's relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again Israel abandoned the Lord to worship false gods.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again she broke the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And yet again and again God pursued her.
SPEAKER_00: That's why today's reading is so astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: God does not say, I've had enough.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will allure her, I will speak to her heart, I will espouse you forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is the language of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the language of relentless love.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we turn to the gospel, Jesus is surrounded by crowds when a desperate father falls to his feet.
SPEAKER_00: My daughter has just died.
SPEAKER_00: And before Jesus even reaches the house, another interruption occurs.
SPEAKER_00: A woman who's been suffering hemorrhages for twelve years quietly reaches through the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: For twelve years she has endured pain.
SPEAKER_00: And according to Jewish law, her condition also made her ritually unclean.
SPEAKER_00: That meant isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Isolation from much of ordinary religious and social life of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: She was marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: She carried not only physical suffering but loneliness and shame.
SPEAKER_00: She must have thought, if only I can touch his cloak.
SPEAKER_00: Notice her humility.
SPEAKER_00: She does not ask Jesus to notice her.
SPEAKER_00: She does not ask for a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: She simply wants to touch the fringe of his garment.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus refuses to let the miracle remain anonymous.
SPEAKER_00: He stops, he turns, he looks directly at her, and he says something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Courage, daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Only once in the gospels does Jesus address someone this way.
SPEAKER_00: Daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Before he heals her body, he restores her dignity.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds her who she is.
SPEAKER_00: She's not merely a sick woman, she is a beloved daughter of God.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus continues to the official's house.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone, everyone there believes the story's over.
SPEAKER_00: Professional mourners have already arrived.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd laughs when Jesus says, The girl's not dead, but sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd laughs.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus acts.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd sees death.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees possibility.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd sees an ending.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees a beginning.
SPEAKER_00: He takes the little girl by the hand, and she rises.
SPEAKER_00: What unites these two miracles?
SPEAKER_00: You see, in both cases, Jesus is pursuing someone who cannot save themselves.
SPEAKER_00: A woman has exhausted her every hope.
SPEAKER_00: One little girl cannot even ask for help.
SPEAKER_00: Yet Christ goes towards both of them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what Hosea was describing centuries earlier.
SPEAKER_00: God is always the one who takes the first step.
SPEAKER_00: He seeks us before we seek him.
SPEAKER_00: He loves us before we love him.
SPEAKER_00: He pursues us even after we've wandered away.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps someone listening today feels far from God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe because of sin, maybe because of disappointment and shame, maybe because life has become overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, I want you to remember today's first reading.
SPEAKER_00: God is still speaking to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He has not given up on you.
SPEAKER_00: He will never give up on you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you doubt that, simply look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the way he stops for one forgotten woman.
SPEAKER_00: The way he takes a little girl by the hand.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The cross is the greatest proof that God never stops pursuing the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: The entire Christian life begins when we finally realize something astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the ones who first went looking for God.
SPEAKER_00: He has been the one looking for us all along.
SPEAKER_00: And at every mass is another reminder that the divine bridegroom is still coming in search of his beloved.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin this new week, may we have the courage to let him find us, to let him heal us, and to let him love us with faithful love that never ends.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.