There is a smorgasbord of material to attend to this day. I've been thinking a lot about this week's unfolding readings from Joshua, wondering how to engage with texts of terror. And then there is the feast of the Sacred Heart which unfortunately conjures visions of anemic Catholic Catalog statues. And then there is Hosea.
If the feast is meant to point toward the humanity of Jesus, his fleshiness at that place where human emotions live, then Hosea is a rich companion. The "ban" and the slaughter will have to wait.
The language is so tender. And so human. "I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheek." And that's all it takes, flesh touches flesh and "My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger."
So true. Human contact, real, proximate, and open, diffuses so much would-be violence of thought or action. Seeing Christ in the other is being open to that encounter that subverts all my prejudice and allows heart to know heart and where every person is that precious raised infant to the cheek.
May my heart be so overwhelmed!
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