I will heal their wounds

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

On Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time our church invites us to continue reflecting on a passages from the book of the prophet Hosea (14: 2-10) entitled “The call to repentance and the promise of healing”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a treatise On the Incarnation of the Lord by Theodoret of Cyr, bishop.

Book of Hosea, the first of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, considered as one book, The Twelve, in the Jewish canon. According to the superscription, Hosea began his prophetic activity during the reign of Jeroboam II (c. 786–746 bc). Most of Hosea's messages are announcements of God’s anger with Israel (the northern of the two Israelite kingdoms) and God’s impending judgement on this people. Hosea's messages focus on Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord. This lack of faithfulness is seen in Israel's worship of other gods (alongside the Lord). The book of Hosea is about God’s loving relationship with the chosen people –a love that leads God to judge the people when they love other gods and oppress each other, but also a relationship to which God is faithful on the other side of judgment.

Theodoret of Cyr was fifth century influential theologian of the School of Antioch, biblical commentator, and Christian bishop of Cyrus. He played a pivotal role in several 5th-century Byzantine Church controversies that led to various ecumenical acts and schisms.

On the Incarnation of the Lord by Theodoret of Cyr was written about 431 attributed to Christ an integral human consciousness with a distinct psychological ego. In it Theodoret writes: “Of his own free will Jesus ran to meet those sufferings that were foretold in the Scriptures concerning him. He had forewarned his disciples about them several times; he had rebuked Peter for being reluctant to accept the announcement of his passion, and he had made it clear that it was by means of his suffering that the world’s salvation was to be accomplished. This was why he stepped forward and presented himself to those who came in search of him, saying: I am the one you are looking for. For the same reason he made no reply when he was accused, and refused to hide when he could have done so; although in the past he had slipped away on more than one occasion when they had tried to apprehend him.”