Archbishop of Sydney

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Hosea 6:3-6; Rom 4:18-25; Mt 9:9-13

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
8/6/2008

Hosea, the first of the twelve minor prophets, who wrote sometime before the fall of the northern kingdom of Samaria in 721 B.C., is a beautiful and poetic writer, who understood human nature well.

He has God speaking to Ephraim and Judah rebuking them because their love is like a morning cloud, a light dew which disappears quickly when the sun comes up.  It is not even like the strong pea-soup fog we had last week, which restricted the ferries on the harbour and closed the airport for a while.  The sun really had to work hard to dissolve it.  Their love and good intentions disappeared much more quickly than that.

I suppose we are reluctant to believe that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but we do know what is meant and we know from our own personal lives that promises and good intentions are not enough.  We have to deliver the goods regularly.  This is part of being a responsible adult Christian, and that is what Hosea is wanting from his hearers.

Most people are religious in one way or other, but one religious way is not as good as any other.  The true God calls us down a narrow path.  But the yearning for God, for meaning, is part of our natural make-up and if God is driven out, other forces come in to fill the vacuum.  Some of these are not too noxious, primitive superstitions like trying to know the future from the stars, but others, like Nazism and Communism, can be demonic and destructive.  For young adults the damage is often done early on by alcohol or drugs or irresponsible sexual behaviour.  This pushes God aside.

Christians believe God is personal, good, and loving towards us.  We also believe God has set moral standards and will judge us at death.  For many this is objectionable as they have chosen to make their own rules.  This is a formidable psychological barrier to believing, but Hosea insisted that God would come as certainly as the dawn comes, that his judgement will be like the light and as life-giving as spring rains.

Older Catholics like myself can be a bit apprehensive about God’s coming judgement, but the Jews of old looked on it as a time of vindication, provided they had been faithful in their lives as well as adhering to the religious rituals required.  Perhaps the theme of today’s readings is deeds not words!

The first part of the gospel gives one example of this when Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, from his customs house.  On hearing Jesus call Matthew got up and followed him.

Regularly when I am talking to young people I explain that Jesus did not offer his message as only one among a number of equally attractive holiday packages.  Morally speaking it does not matter whether you go on holidays to the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast or to Fiji or Bali.  Jesus’ call is different because he said “come follow me” and immense consequences in this life and the next follow from knowingly accepting or rejecting his call.

Jesus wants us to act and I am sure he prefers us to grumble a bit and then act rather than sweet talking and doing nothing.  Best of all, of course, is to answer the call cheerfully and do as we promise.

You don’t have to be a saint or politically correct to receive Our Lord’s call, although the politically correct are also called to repent and believe!  The class to which Matthew belonged was nearly as low as you could go in Jewish public opinion.  Pious Jews would not talk to them and when the Pharisees objected to Our Lord mixing and eating with the tax collectors and sinners, probably prostitutes, he explained ironically that he had come to call sinners, not the virtuous.

God also keeps his word and does not make empty promises.  While God often writes straight in crooked lines He always looks after us.  We need faith to accept that but in the letter to the Romans Paul explained how God kept his promise to Abraham to become the father of many nations although this appeared to be humanly impossible.  God is with us and God will look after us.

Let us pray for an increase of faith and hope, which will inspire us to practice what we preach and issue in deeds of love not just words and empty promises.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.