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March 20, 2020God not only longs for our love; he begs for it. From Hosea to the Gospel, God reveals again and again that he longs to enter into communion with us and to be the source of our abundance. Hosea prophesied to an Israel that repeatedly turned to other gods in a futile attempt to find happiness. The Lord’s response: “Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God… I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely.” From this return unto healing flows the promise of blossoming abundance. The core of this abundance, God reveals, is God himself: “Because of me you bear fruit!”
The theme of repentance unto abundance echoes in the psalm for today. The Lord reminds his Chosen People of his loving deliverance of them from the enslavement they experienced in Egypt. He pleads for their openness so that he can pour out gifts: “If only my people would hear me, and Israel walk in my ways, I would feed them with the best of wheat, and with honey from the rock I would fill them.”
The essence of this abundant life founded upon union with God is evident in the dialogue of the Gospel. To the one who loves God with all his or her being and others as self, Jesus assures, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” This Kingdom is within; it is the union with God that alone can satisfy every desire of the human heart superabundantly. It is Christ himself.
