Hearth & Altar

Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain down justice upon you. After everything Hosea has named about Israel's false heart and its accumulated consequences, there is an opening. The field can be broken up. A new one. The seeking is still possible.

The image is agricultural and demanding: breaking up a new field is hard work. The fallow ground has gone to thorns and thistles. It requires labor before it receives seed, and the seed must be sown before the rain comes. The rain of justice comes in response to the seeking. You seek first; the rain follows.

Jesus summoned the Twelve. He gave them authority - over unclean spirits, over every disease and illness. And then he named every one of them, including Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. The authority was given to the whole group, including the one who would not hold it faithfully. The sending is not conditional on the fidelity the Lord can see in advance.

The household that breaks up the fallow ground this week - that does the hard labor of seeking before the rain has come - is doing what Hosea asked of Israel at the end of the accusation.

• For our family, that we would break up whatever fallow ground has developed - naming it specifically and doing the labor of seeking before we wait for the rain, we pray to the Lord.
• For those sitting in the accumulated thorns and thistles of their altars - who have built and built and it has produced nothing - that the sow-for-yourselves-justice word would arrive and be heard, we pray to the Lord.
• For those sent out with authority they are not sure they can hold faithfully, that the one who sends knows what he is doing and the authority is his to give and his to reclaim, we pray to the Lord.
• In this Precious Blood month, for the rain of justice that comes in response to the seeking - the justice purchased by the blood of the one who sent the Twelve, we pray to the Lord.

Break up for yourselves a new field. Name the specific fallow ground in your household's spiritual life - the practice that has gone dormant, the prayer that has thinned, the formation that has stopped. Break up one specific patch of it this week. The labor comes before the rain.

Jesus named every one of the Twelve, including Judas. The sending is not conditional on foreseen fidelity. Your children will be sent with authority they will not always hold well. The naming and sending is still the Lord's to do.