SPEAKER_00: There's a line in the first reading today that says, their heart is false.
SPEAKER_00: God does not accuse Israel of having no religion.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they had plenty of religion.
SPEAKER_00: They built altars, they offered sacrifices, they observed feasts.
SPEAKER_00: Externally, they looked very religious.
SPEAKER_00: The problem was not their worship, the problem was their heart.
SPEAKER_00: There was a disconnect between what they professed and how they lived.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted the blessings of God without the demands of God.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted religion on their own terms.
SPEAKER_00: And isn't that one of the great temptations of every generation?
SPEAKER_00: We can begin to confuse being around the things of God with actually belonging to God.
SPEAKER_00: You can attend Mass every day or every Sunday and still have a divided heart.
SPEAKER_00: You can know your prayers by memory and never really pray.
SPEAKER_00: You can wear a crucifix around your neck and still carry idols in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God says through Hosea, their heart is false.
SPEAKER_00: Notice something else.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet says, The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he built.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the more successful they became, the less dependent they became on God.
SPEAKER_00: Prosperity became dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Not because wealth is evil, scripture never says that, but because success can quietly convince us that we no longer need God.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about the human nature that when life falls apart, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: When life goes well, we often congratulate ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes suffering brings us closer to God than success could ever.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Hosea ends with one of the most beautiful invitations in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I love that image.
SPEAKER_00: Every farmer knows that hard ground cannot receive seeds.
SPEAKER_00: Before anything can grow, the soil must first be broken open.
SPEAKER_00: The same is true for spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: Some hearts become hard.
SPEAKER_00: They become hard from disappointments, hard from routine, from success, hard from sin, hard from years of carrying old resentments and wounds.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot plant new life in soil that refuses to be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he allows difficulties not to punish us, but to soften us, not to break us, but to break open the ground of our hearts so that grace can finally take root.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we look at the gospel Jesus calls the twelve by name, think about that list: a fisherman, another fisherman, a tax collector, a political zealot, ordinary men with different personalities, different backgrounds, different strengths, and plenty of weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: One of them would even betray him.
SPEAKER_00: And yet these are the people Jesus chooses to evangelize the world.
SPEAKER_00: That tells us something remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: God has never waited for perfect people.
SPEAKER_00: He works through available people.
SPEAKER_00: Notice also that before Jesus sends them, he first gives them authority.
SPEAKER_00: Mission always follows communion.
SPEAKER_00: Before they preach, they receive.
SPEAKER_00: Before they give, they're first given something.
SPEAKER_00: This is so true for us.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot give Christ if we are not living with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Parents can't pass on a faith they do not practice.
SPEAKER_00: Priests cannot preach a gospel, they do not pray.
SPEAKER_00: Christians cannot share a joy they do not possess.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom spreads when disciples first allow the king to reign in their own hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So today the Lord leaves us with two questions.
SPEAKER_00: First, is my heart divided or does it truly belong to God?
SPEAKER_00: And second, what hard ground in my life still needs to be broken open so that God can plant something new?
SPEAKER_00: Because Hosea reminds us of something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: It is time to seek the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not tomorrow, not when life settles down, not after retirement, not when the children are all grown today.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because whenever a heart truly seeks the Lord, the kingdom of heaven is no longer far away.
SPEAKER_00: It's already at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.