Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

In the mystic literature of Buddhism the story is often told of the uncomprehending youth and his persistent teacher. The boy just doesn’t “get it” until something breaks within him. Finally, tearful and smiling he has Enlightenment. But, of course, he can’t explain it. Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not know.

The Buddha was born and his religion flourished around the same time the prophets appeared in Israel. Some scholars believe there was a kind of awakening to God-consciousness in human history at that time. This movement of grace continues into our own day, challenging every generation to see and understand what is real.

In today’s reading, the prophet Hosea challenges his people to understand what God wants of them. They just don’t get it; nor does the zealous Pharisee in today’s gospel story. If he were to hear Jesus’ story he would probably go home thumping his head with the palm of his hand and saying, “What does he want?”

It has something to with playing games. Hosea sees his contemporaries playing games with God. They seem to say: “If we cannot ignore him we’ll play the game by his rules. He has told us he’ll forgive us, so we’ll be sorry for a few days and then he’ll forgive us. How hard can that be? What have we got to lose? He is our God after all. He claims us as his people. So we’ll go along with him while he’s mad at us, and then everything will be fine again.”

He will revive us after two days;
on the third day he will raise us up,
to live in his presence.

But God isn’t playing games. God genuinely wants, expects and demands of us enthusiastic, generous, unrestrained, unconditional, courageous, open-hearted trust. This is not a matter of God’s giving and refusing his blessings until he gets what he wants. There is no quid-pro-quo in this relationship.

We will see finally what God wants in Jesus’ crucifixion. This man – speaking for all of us -- knows absolutely what God wants and satisfies God’s infinite desire for our love. We will see God’s pure, unadulterated goodness when God surrenders his life to God. And we will see God’s total surrender of himself to us, a gift which could be neither effective nor visible if it were not crucified.

Perhaps then we will understand what God wants.