Decision to Return to God

The decision to return to God is described in the text today in the Roman Catholic Lectionary from the Prophet Hosea as a rediscovery, in the words of Friar Jude Winkler, of beauty, strength and fertility using metaphors of the cedars of Lebanon and the experience of the agricultural society with the life cycle of the olive. The return to belief from forms of atheism in our time has been explored in a CBC Ideas documentary. There are parallels between our discovery that there is substantial emptiness in our embrace of Enlightenment rationalism in the last century and the spiritual void in which Hosea exhorts the people of Israel to return to God. The psalm is the great song of our desire for reconciliation with God as we experienced what some have called the “God shaped hole” in our being. Jesus advises His disciples in the text from the Gospel of Matthew that the life of following the Will of God is not easy. We are living as sheep among wolves. Kevin Kersten SJ comments that our actions to follow the Will of the Father will be supported by the strength of the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus in the passage from the Gospel. Kevin identifies actions like when we confront forces of evil with our words, express our compassion to those who suffer, or respond to others in any moment  moving us to bear witness to the love and wisdom of God as situations where we may be open to ridicule and rebuke. Friar Jude notes that the simplicity which Jesus advises we use to see situations with the eyes of the Holy Spirit may be interpreted by others as simple mindedness. Our return to God and to life which is not all about ourselves is an act which is based on humility and the trust that Holy Spirit works with the humble to bring the joy of the Beatitudes to life.