Hosea 14:2-10 / Mark 12:28-34
In our worship, we use very lofty and transcendent names for God.
We say prayers like "I confess to Almighty God ..." or "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty".
It is an expression of who God is and that we are His creatures.
Yet the image of an almighty God was reduced to that of a broken-hearted father who is pleading with his children to return to him, as the prophet Hosea put it in the 1st reading.
God was also portrayed as a father yearning for his children's love.
But how can!? How can God be portrayed as going down on His knees and pleading with His creatures?
Could not God have used His almighty power to work some spectacular signs and bring His people back to Him?
Or just give the ultimatum: Come back or else!
Surely He could. But of course God knows better.
God knows that a forced loved is not a true love.
True love comes from a freedom to love.
As Jesus puts it in the gospel - to love with all the heart, all the soul, all the mind and all the strength.
That is the kind of love that God has for us, and an everlasting love at that.
We know how to love Him in return - and that is by loving others.
God has made His choice to love us. It is now up to us to make our choice.