Hosea 14: "From Me Comes Your Fruit"

The last chapter of the Book of the Prophet Hosea, the first reading for Mass today, is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Hosea, under God’s direction, marries a harlot named Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. God had said to Hosea, “Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1). Hosea is to do what God does: love an unfaithful wife. Each of us sins, and so we are an unfaithful wife to God, but that does not extinguish God’s love for us. God hates our sin and calls us back to Himself; when we turn back to Him through God’s unrelenting tenacity, “in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’ ” (Hosea 2:16).

The final chapter of this amazing book of the Bible goes like this:

Thus says the LORD: return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; we shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily; he shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; they shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a verdant cypress tree”– because of me you bear fruit! Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them (Hosea 14:2-10).

And so the words of the prophet come to an end. If we understand what he is saying here, according to him, we will have wisdom. What is that wisdom? It is primarily this: “I am like a verdant cypress tree—because of me you bear fruit!” The RSVCE states it as such: “I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit.” God is merciful and forgiving, and He will forgive and heal us if we are humble and turn to Him. We will be destroyed if we persist in our disobedience and separation from Him. Turning to Him and giving ourselves entirely into His hands, we will become like a lily, an olive tree, a Lebanon cedar, a blossoming vine, and the wine of Lebanon, God is like a tree who is always green, and from Him comes our fruit.

God makes us fruitful. We bear fruit through God’s power and grace. This is true on at least two levels. On the one hand, God is the one who provides children, and on the other hand, He is also the one who gives us the grace to do anything good that we do. Bearing babies is one way we bear fruit, and the other way we bear fruit is through all the good that we do. Both are fruit, and they were symbolized by the two trees in the Garden of Eden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life symbolizes the heart which loves, trusts and obeys God; therefore, it is the tree which always does the good, and so it is united to God, the source of all life. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, according to my theory, is our power and ability to conceive children.

What we need to learn is, and where wisdom is found is in this passage here: God provides. He makes us fruitful. He is the source of life and children, and He is the source of goodness and every good action. In the Blessed Virgin Mary, these two forms of providing fruit are fulfilled. God makes Mary filled with His life and a plenitude of virtue and trust in Him; that trust in God within her heart is rewarded with the most exalted reality: God gave Mary His own Son to conceive, bear, and raise as her own Son. God provides life and virtue, and He provides His very own Son to be Mary’s Son.

What that means for you and me is that, on the one hand, we need to realize that anything good that we have ever, are doing, or will ever do is because God has given us the grace to do so. On the other hand, we need to realize that children are a gift from Him, and they are not to be shunned as a burden or sought after regardless of the means (i.e. in vitro fertilization) as if we had a right to them. We are to welcome and thank God for our gifts, both our virtues and our children.

God is Father. One of the primary roles of a father is to provide for his children. Unless we become like children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God because children are totally dependant upon their parents. God wants us to be totally dependant upon Him and upon His provision for us. This does not mean that He wants us to be childish or big babies. Parents don’t want their children to be helpless, hopeless, childish brats. We need to be strong and mature, all the while knowing that our strength and life and love come from Him. He wants us to trust Him, to cling to Him, to rely on Him for everything, to call Him “Father,” or “Abba” or “Dad.”

The danger of being “rich” in any way whether it is regarding money or fame, intelligence or abilities, beauty or health, family or friends, the danger of riches is that we tend to forget that we need God and that every good that we have is His gift. We are like the fickle, self-absorbed friend who only calls when he needs something; we tend to only remember Him when we are in trouble and we need something from God. No one likes to be treated like a sugar daddy or a slot machine or a fast food restaurant or a spa or an amusement park or an ATM machine or a witch doctor. God doesn’t let Himself be used like that for He isn’t an object for our use. He is a person (three to be exact), and He wants to be in the most intimate relationship with us; He is meant to be our husband, and so He is jealous for our love. He is the very best of husbands, and only in giving ourselves totally to Him are we truly happy and satisfied. Nothing else quenches the infinite longings of our soul because that is how He fashioned us. As Saint Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.