We are to make up an abundance of workers in God's harvest.

Tuesday, 7/5/16

In the First Reading today we hear Hosea predicting ruin for the kingdom of Israel that occupied the northern half od the Holy Land. They had broken away from Jerusalem when king Rehoboam,  the son of Solomon over taxed them.

That was reasonable, but what followed was not. The success of their farming had always been partnered with observing the feasts of their temple, so when their revolt against Jerusalem separated them from God’s temple on Jerusalem, they built a temple in Bethel.

They felt that their new temple also needed to have its god, so they enshrined a pagan idol,  and that had them turning their backs on God, turning them from living in accord with the Ten Commandments. That would inevitably lead to their destruction of which Hosea spoke.

In the Gospel Jesus returned to the notion of comparing full, happy lives to having good harvests. He too saw good harvests as only resulting on a proper service to God, and for that he told us to pray to God to bring us in as an abundance of workers in his harvest.