Collapse and restoration

Thus says the Lord in today’s first reading (Hosea 14:2-10):

You have collapsed through your guilt.

Sometimes we feel that way with particular intensity: collapsed, guilty.

But in today’s first reading the Lord also promises restoration and healing for the truly penitent: not simple restoration of what we may have had, but perfect fulfillment of what we ought to be.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.