Homily: 8 July 2022 (Hosea 14:2-10)(Please read the passage above before reading this.)
The prophet announces that it is time to return to the Lord. He wants us to say words that express genuine sorrow for our misdeeds.
He tells the nation to rid itself of tanks, howitzers, battleships, aircraft carriers, and all other weapons of war.
He has the same message for us, that we give up our personal weapons of mass destruction, our various powers that we use to force our way or hurt others.
The prophet knows that we will never give up our warhorses as a nation or as an army until we have given up our personal weapons. This is because the nation speaks for the aggregate of individuals rather than the other way around. If we want to change the nation, we must change ourselves.
Prophets never speak in the abstract, but in the concrete. Their words are remembered because they spoke to the people of their time. Because they spoke to the people of their times, they can speak to us in our time.
What words must I say today; what words must you say today? Which weapons must I surrender; which must you surrender? Let the one who is wise understand these things and know them. Thus says the Lord.