This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1, Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13

idle idols

4 They have set up kings, but without my consent, and appointed princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold, they have made themselves idols, but only to be destroyed. 5 I spurn your calf, Samaria! My anger blazes against them! How long will it be before they recover their innocence? 6 For it is the product of Israel- a craftsman made the thing, it is no god at all! The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces! 7 Since they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind; stalk without ear, it will never yield flour- or if it does, foreigners will swallow it.

11 Ephraim keeps building altars for his sins, these very altars are themselves a sin. 12 However much of my Law I write for him, Ephraim regards it as alien to him.

13 They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat, they do not win the Lord’s favour. On the contrary, he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will have to go back to Egypt.

One of the crimes the prophet rages against is open idolatry. People openly worship images they have created. People do this today: images of success, sex, power, wealth, are openly worshipped in our society.

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The other crime is that of giving lip-service to religion but refusing to obey its most basic precepts. Much of the hysterical, murderous, type of Islam is like this: the basic precepts of Islam are simply ignored, while its name is used to justify brutality, just as Christianity was used to support ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. I find the use of Jesus’ name by murderous fundamentalists particularly offensive. But then there’s my own use of it. How much wilful disobedience is required to constitute lip-service?

Gospel, Matthew 9:32-38

32 They had only just left when suddenly a man was brought to him, a dumb demoniac. 33 And when the devil was driven out, the dumb man spoke and the people were amazed and said, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.’

34 But the Pharisees said, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he drives out devils.’

35 Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness. 36 And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers to his harvest.’

Jesus’ commitment to the welfare of the human person stands out in the gospel narrative. He heals people. This is such an obvious sign of his goodness that his enemies are obliged to denigrate it.

Jesus takes it for granted that the spiritual resources to heal are available, not only to him, but to all who are willing to work at it. He sees the crowds as “harassed and dejected.” Anyone who watches a crowd of shoppers in a city will see the same symptoms.

harvest rich-labourers few

When people are touched by genuine goodness, they are transformed and full of life (The harvest is rich), but there are not many people who will work for this transformation. (the labourers are few).During the school holidays, thousands of churches round Britain will provide holiday clubs for children. Volunteers will use imagination and love to create happiness. Yet these efforts survive on meagre resources, using the providers’ own holiday time to make their labour available. For this reason, these clubs cannot exist all the year round. But of course, other organisations, Brownies, Cubs, do operate for the rest of the year, staffed by other volunteers. The vast majority of people in Britain are too selfish and too lazy to do anything for nothing. The harvest is rich (children do respond to adult company) but the labourers are few.