Marry me!

Nearly all of us remember at least one moment in our lives when we came face to face with someone we had adored from afar and we suddenly became stammering, wordless idiots.

That is what today’s first reading (from Hosea 2) does to me.

It is not only because the words are beautiful (they are) - it is because of the reality behind them: the passionate intimacy of the infinite love with which the Lord loves us and by which he calls us to himself.

I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the LORD.

There are no words that I can say: I feel like the most clueless, stammering adolescent.

Perhaps, there are no words that need to be said.

What we must do is open our hearts and minds and souls to the Lord: to his words, to his love.

We must let the Lord lead us into the desert of our innermost emptiness and there let him speak to our hearts.

I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the LORD.

Amen!

Espouse me, Lord Jesus!