Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are quite challenging. Both are prophetic criticisms of misunderstood faith and practice. Each, in their fashion, describe the desire to domesticate the love and glory of God in human structures (otherwise known as idolatry). In both cases, this idolatry is perceived as faithfulness to the God of Israel. In both cases, even these well intended structure becomes an obstacle to God. Ultimately, these readings challenge us to reflect on the ways that we often confuse our frail and finite edifices for God’s enduring and eternal holiness.
The first reading, from the prophet Hosea, criticizes the idolatrous practices of a people who have turned away from God. Interestingly, this is not a simple matter of abandoning God for some pagan religion. Instead, “When Ephraim made many altars to expiate sin, his altars became occasions of sin.” The very structures built to heal sin, had become an obstacle to that healing. Hosea criticizes Israel for confusing the structures that mediate healing for the source of healing. In other words, without a faithful spirit of humility and reconciliation, the sacrifice was offered in vain.
The second reading, from the gospel of Matthew, continues the theme of misapprehension and confusion. As Jesus healed a man possessed by a demon, the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.” Like above, the Pharisees believed they were interpreting the event in accordance with the structures of their tradition. They tried to make sense of the event through the structures. In turn, they misperceived the work of God because it did not align with their presuppositions. In this case, the healing was perceived as evidence of sin.
Both of these passages deal with the way that efforts to contain God results in idolatry. In the first case, the mediating role of the structure was misperceived as the source of healing. In the second case, the healing itself was misperceived as vicious. The structures and edifices within our own life are good and serve a good purpose. Yet, we can often confuse them as the source of the goodness. However good and worthy they are, these edifices are only truly good insofar as they orient us toward God. Perhaps more importantly, it seems they must also leave us open to the audacious work of God unanticipated by the frameworks in our everyday life.
Today let us ponder in our hearts the way we are healed in unanticipated ways.
- Adam Sheridan