Returning to the Lord and His Response

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Friday, 3rd Week of Lent, Year B, March 12th, 2021
Texts: Hos. 14:1-9; Ps. 81:6-11,14.17; Mark 12:28-34
Solution to a problem is hardly reached until its cause is found.  Today, God, through prophet Hosea, told the people thus: "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity." We have stumbled because we have lapsed into sin and waywardness; we are no longer stable before God because of two minds, we have given in to distractions. The call to return to God is a call to abandon the life of sin and waywardness; it is a call to give up two minds and decide on whom to serve; it is a call to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and with all our souls, and with all our minds, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. Hence, it is said, "Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, 'Take away all iniquity; accept that which is good and we will render the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy'.” This reminds us of the prodigal son: "At last he came to his senses and said, 'All my father's hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve! I will get up and go to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against God and against you" (Luke 15:17-18). Jesus showed he was conversant with today's first reading and so giving it to us as a model for showing genuine repentance and returning to God. To have repented genuinely we must have acknowledged our sins, resolved to give them up, and acknowledged that God is merciful. The return to God is to confess our sins, ask for forgiveness of the sins, to assure Him that by His grace we will not sin again, and to thank and praise Him for His mercy that never fails.
When we return to God, He will not treat us according to our sins, but He will heal our faithlessness and love us freely; He will give us faith and take away our iniquity. He will be as our dew and we shall blossom like lily, for He shall comfort us, renew us, revive us, and we will be full of life once again. We will strike roots like poplar and our shoots spread out because we shall be firmly established and our tentacles extended.  Our beauty will be like the olive because it will never fade; the green colour of olive never fades. The beauty represents our virtues; they will not fade, they will endure, because we are full of hope, hope that does not disappoint. We shall be fragrance like Lebanon because we shall be offerings pleasing to the Lord. We will dwell beneath God's shadow means we shall enjoy His protection and grace. With God's grace and protection, we shall flourish as a garden and  blossom as the vine. This means we will be fruitful and productive in good works. Our fragrance will be like wine of Lebanon, for we shall be known by our good deeds.
God continues to remind us that He has been the one blessing us and looking after us. The refusal to believe that God is the one blessing us and looking often makes us to backslide and run after other gods. For those who think that God is not just in His dealings, it is said, "the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them." Many of the time we think that God is unjust because we have refused to see beyond now.

Lord our God, open our eyes to see where we might have gone wrong, so that we can repent and return to You. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke