Friday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time

“Then Your Light Will Break Forth Like the Dawn”

After the time we spent last week with the prophet Amos and his thunderings against unrepentant Israel, Hosea appears like a soothing balm, promising that God will love Israel freely and that they shall blossom like the lily. Hosea has many other wonderful promises to Israel (which is all of us now), as do Isaiah and the other prophets. Sometimes, we may be tempted to ask ourselves (or, if we are very bold, to ask God) why these wonderful promises do not seem to materialize for us. It is then that we must remember the word Hosea used before those lofty promises- return. Another word for that along the same spiritual lines is repent.

For the great spiritual truth is that we cannot expect to find peace, joy and the love of God without a true and sincere repentance first, a complete turning away from our selfish selves and turning fully to God, the operative word being fully. It is what the Apostle Paul meant by becoming a new creation. There is a famous line in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, that states, “Half-measures availed us nothing.” The letter of James in the first chapter tells us to ask God for this gift of full repentance, but warns us, “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded person, unstable in all his ways.” And Isaiah 58, when he speaks of true fasting (or true religion, if you will), famously states in God’s voice, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily.” It is as if Isaiah is saying, yes your light will dawn and your healing come readily, but only then, only after you turn to God fully and begin acting in those ways.

For we must face the truth that the only reason we have not found peace, the only reason that people, events and circumstances still confound, dog and distress us, is because we continue to resist truly repenting. And that means ceasing to demand things our way, ceasing to demand what we want, ceasing to go it alone according to our rules and desires, accepting complete responsibility for the state of our lives, becoming willing to be completely honest and completely reliant on God and to stop demanding the answer to questions of why and just accept everything. Acceptance, of others and ourselves, of everything that happens and resisting putting any labels (like good or bad) on anyone or anything. It is to not ask why. That is what it means to do God’s will. Along with all of this we must also become willing to forgive everyone (and ourselves), to pray every day and to seek to love and serve everyone, especially those we take offense at.

There is a well known expression that goes, “If nothing changes, then nothing changes.” If we continue to wait for the world to change and for people to change, then our wait will never end. If we continue to say that it is too much to achieve, too high a price to pay (clinging to the fear that we must do all this ourselves instead of God doing it for us if we would simply let him), then we will continue to suffer and moan and remain lost in our fears. God’s love and grace are not magic. There is no magic wand that will transform everything while we just sit there. We must do something. We must make the decision. We must finally actually believe what the Gospels tell us and then begin to act, to seek in a real faith that isn’t always merely demanding, “Show me!”

This is the promise of Jesus and the Prophets- if you admit your selfishness and blindness and allow yourself to be changed by the grace of God by simply daring to surrender to God’s will and abandon your own, then you will be amazed to find that the whole, entire world and everything and everyone in it will have completely and forever changed as well.