{"id":11087,"date":"2025-11-14T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/?p=11087"},"modified":"2025-11-08T16:47:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T16:47:26","slug":"bible-mission-being-missionaries-of-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/11\/14\/bible-mission-being-missionaries-of-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible & Mission. Being Missionaries of Good News"},"content":{"rendered":"

In words and gestures, the prophet Hosea\u2019s vocation is a testimony of fidelity and living God\u2019s love. It is an invitation to be missionaries of love, mercy and good news. <\/em><\/p>\n

Hosea, from the Hebrew Hoshe\u2019a, is the shortened form of \u201cYahweh saves.\u201d This 8th-century BC prophet, son of Beeri, a native of the tribe of Ephraim, witnessed the moral and spiritual decline of the people of Israel, a period marked by complacency, injustice, corruption, idolatry and moral collapse.<\/p>\n

A noble farmer, a faithful man, holy, and in love with God, Hosea had to be a prophet. Using an analogy based on his personal life, Hosea denounced the unfaithfulness and wrong paths taken by the people of Israel, persuading them to repent and convert; at the same time, with his word and example, he sowed messages of love, mercy, forgiveness, and hope.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s designs are unfathomable, and understanding the Lord\u2019s will in our lives can be quite difficult. However, trusting in God and His love means accepting what He asks of us and living our lives according to the Spirit.<\/p>\n

His love and faithfulness to the Lord\u2019s Word made Hosea agree to marry a sinful woman: \u201cThe Lord began to speak to Hosea, saying to him, \u2018Go, take a prostitute to wife, and beget children of prostitution, for the nation does not cease to commit prostitution, turning away from the Lord.\u2019 So, he went and married Gomer\u201d (Hosea 1:1-2).<\/p>\n

Hosea\u2019s relationship with his wife parallels God\u2019s relationship with the people of Israel. Despite the Lord\u2019s love for His people, they turned away from God, became corrupted and worshipped other false gods.<\/p>\n

There were many social injustices; the people had strayed from the right paths and from their relationship with the Lord. Hosea\u2019s suffering, caused by his wife\u2019s unfaithfulness and their eventual separation, corresponds to the suffering of God, who loves people who don\u2019t follow His precepts, men and women who don\u2019t love Him in their hearts and their deeds.<\/p>\n

Gomer\u2019s unfaithfulness to Hosea, and the people of Israel\u2019s unfaithfulness to the Lord, should also make us reflect on our relationship with God, on our smallness before the greatness of God\u2019s Love. However, it should encourage us to be faithful to God and to realize that we need the Lord\u2019s living and effective presence in our lives. Indeed, only with God in our lives can we find the strength to face the challenges of this world, which are sometimes so difficult.<\/p>\n

This infidelity on the part of Hosea\u2019s wife and the people of Israel could happen to any one of us. In fact, caught up in our daily work, family commitments and social life, we often don\u2019t have time for God. One of Hosea\u2019s important messages is that the people are lost because they don\u2019t know God (Hosea, 4:6).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to have daily times of prayer, listening to the Word, and moments when we are alone with the Lord who loves us so much: a true and sincere relationship with God. And because we need intimate moments with God, He has this desire: I will take you into the desert and speak to your heart (Hosea, 2:16).<\/p>\n

The prophet Hosea sought the sincere conversion of the people to the Lord. His love for God and for his people led him to persuade his fellow citizens to convert, to return to the path of the Covenant! In the same way, each of us must be a prophet today, proclaiming God with our lives, from a humble and sincere heart.<\/p>\n

The story of Hosea with his wife, the story of God with His people, is a story of love, of forgiveness. So can our relationship with God. Despite Gomer\u2019s unfaithfulness, Hosea went to rescue her and, as if she were a slave, paid to get her back (Hosea, 3:2). In the same way, God also promises to forgive His people, renew the Covenant and pour out blessings on them (Hosea, 14:2-7).<\/p>\n

Hosea\u2019s vocation of fidelity and pure love for a woman who was unfaithful to him also teaches us to forgive and to love. God\u2019s love for us is permanent and eternal!<\/p>\n

Jesus, who calls us to follow Him, each according to their specific vocation, knows us and loves us deeply. He invites each of us to live a unique relationship with Him, to love Him and to feel His great love. On the cross, the Son of God bore witness to His complete love for us, giving His life for all humanity out of love!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, as missionary disciples, we know that love is the engine that drives us to be witnesses of the Good News to the ends of the earth. St. Therese of the Child Jesus understood this: at the end of her vocational search, she said: \u201cMy vocation is love!\u201d The patron saint of the Missions realised that the Church does not exist without love and that, therefore, it is impossible to evangelise without love. (Pedro Nascimento) \u2013 (Photo: 123rf)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In words and gestures, the prophet Hosea\u2019s vocation is a testimony of fidelity and living God\u2019s love. It is an invitation to be missionaries of love, mercy and good news. Hosea, from the Hebrew Hoshe\u2019a, is the shortened form of \u201cYahweh saves.\u201d This 8th-century BC prophet, son of Beeri, a native of the tribe of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}