Tuesday of Week 14 Per Annum (7^th July): Hosea 8.4-7,11-13; Psalm 113; Matthew 9.32-38

The strongest of the northern tribes was Ephraim; Jeroboam I, who led the rebellion that divided Israel from Judah, was himself an Ephraimite. Accordingly, “Ephraim” is often used as a shorthand designation for Israel. Because Jerusalem was not only the holy city but also the capital of the southern kingdom (“Judah”), Jeroboam made two golden calves and installed them in Dan, on the northern border of Israel, and Bethel, on its southern border. “Here are your gods, Israel; these brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” he declared. [I Kings 12.28; cf Exodus 32.4] These shrines were active places of worship throughout the life of the kingdom of Israel and they had their own priesthood.

Hosea declared that the political instability being felt in Israel was fundamentally caused by this apostasy; that when allegiance to God is absent, the void will be filled with dishonesty, theft, murder and violence. [Hosea 4.2] Moreover, the land itself mourns, and animals, birds and fish perish. [4.3] Hosea doesn’t see any chance for Israel to repent or change; the time has passed for that, and the overthrow of the nation by the conquering Assyrians is inevitable. Israel will have to return to “Egypt”—to subjugation and oppression. But Egypt is the place God goes to rescue his people: and “out of Egypt I called my son.” [11.1] If punishment is inevitable, so also is restoration. The Valley of Achor will become a gateway of hope. [2.17]

Wednesday of Week 14 Per Annum (8^th July): Hosea 10.1-3,7-8,12; Psalm 104; Matthew 10.1-7

The melancholy preacher, Qoheleth in Hebrew, declared that “a king is in service to a field” [Ecclesiastes 5.8]; in other words, misuse of God’s gift of land will ultimately undo political structures. That is the situation Hosea addresses: an Israel whose agricultural productivity has been diverted to the enrichment of the monarchy and of a corrupt priesthood. This situation, Hosea declares, cannot endure. “Samaria” (the capital city of Israel) “has had her day.” The Assyrian king would bring people from Assyria’s colonies and settle them in the towns of Israel; “they took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.” [II Kings 17.24]

It was too late for repentance; a storm was coming in which “the king of Israel is going to disappear for ever.” [10.15] Nonetheless the prophet urged Israel to “sow integrity for yourselves, reap a harvest of kindness. It is time to go seeking the Lord until he comes to rain salvation on you.” Israel’s political existence was at an end, but God intended to restore his people to right relationship with him.

Thursday of Week 14 Per Annum (9^th July): Hosea 11.1-4,8-9; Psalm 79; Matthew 10.7-15

Credo in unum Deum we declare; and credo is the contracted form of core do, “I give my heart.” Foundationally, faith isn’t intellectual adherence to a checklist of required tenants, but relationship. Similarly, when we say in English “I believe” we use a word cognate with the German geliebt, beloved.

Relationships come in many varieties. Many involve mutual expectation; a feudal serf pledges his labour to his liege, who in return promises protection and security. The nation of Israel had made vassalage treaties in a fraught international milieu and these agreements required steep annual tribute payments to Assyria. When Israel rebelled against these arrangements and withdrew this token of “love” its overlords brutally retaliated and Israel in 722 BC was destroyed. [II Kings 17.4]

Hosea meditated deeply on these events. He recalled the covenants God had made with Israel, covenants (“I will adopt you as my own people, and I will be your God”) [Exodus 6.7] which defined both God and the people. Could such a relationship be broken? Hosea in his prophetic heart heard God declare that it could not be. “My heart recoils from it” he insisted. Political Israel had to come to an end, but God’s peace would not depart from God’s people. At the prospect of losing his people God’s fundamental compassion is enkindled. The warmth of God’s love overwhelms the heat of his anger.

Friday of Week 14 Per Annum (10th July): Hosea 14.2-10; Psalm 50; Matthew 10.16-23 John Milton described the strife / Of Mercy and Justice in [God’s] face discerned. In a sense the whole of Hosea’s remarkable prophesy is a profound meditation on that strife. Moses had described God as “slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness; yet by no means clearing the guilty.” [Exodus 34.6] That duel between the requirements of justice and mercy animates both the Old and New Testaments. Hosea wrestles with what he senses is the inevitability of the Assyrian invasion, an event from which he presciently recognises Israel cannot recover, and with his experience of a God whose compassions never fail. In the end what he perceives is not a God constantly divided between justice and mercy but a God who would heal Israel’s disloyalty, a God who takes away the sins of his people and takes them upon himself where those failures and futilities are overwhelmed by the One who loves with all his heart.

St Benedict, Co-Patron of Europe (11^th July): Proverbs 2.1-9; Psalm 33; Matthew 19.27-29

On the 4^th of September 476 the barbarian Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last western Roman Emperor, and the Senate sent the imperial insignia to the Eastern Emperor. This upset inaugurated the Dark Ages of Europe.

St Benedict (circa 480-550) was born in Norcia, in Italy, and went to Rome to be educated. Appalled at the worldliness he encountered there he resolved at about the age of fourteen to life as a hermit and he went to mountainous Subiaco where he lived in a cave. Benedict’s fame spread and disciples began to join him, whom he organised into twelve small monastic communities. Eventually he moved to Monte Cassino where he founded an abbey and wrote his Rule which he described as “a little school for the Lord’s service.” Benedict drew on some Eastern models but his Rule steers a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutionalism. Benedict is considered the founder of Western monasticism.

We give particular thanks on this day for the pastoral work of Benedictine monks in the history of this parish, and we pray for all Benedictine communities in this country and throughout the world.