“Yet I was the One who taught Israel to walk. I took my people up in arms, but they did not acknowledge that I took care of them ! I drew them to me with affection and love. I picked them up and held them to my cheek, I bend down to them and fed them. They insist on turning away from me. They will cry out because of the yoke that is on them, but noone will lift it from them. How can I give you up Israel ? How can I abandon you ?… My Heart will not let me do it ! My love for you is too strong. I will not punish you in anger; I will not destroy Israel again. For I am God and not a human being. I, the Holy One, am with you, I will not come to you in anger.” (Hosea 11 : 3…11).
On this Christmas Eve, we meditate on the passage from the Old Testament, which expresses the most overwhelming of the announcements of the mystery of the Heart of Jesus… The “Heart” of God overwhelmed (upset) by the distress of his unfaithful and hardened people… This “Heart” of the God of Israel, which will be “visible” at Golgotha, and which expresses the infinite mercy of the Father, comes to his lost children to take them into his arms, on his “Heart”, like one embraces a baby. And tomorrow we will contemplate Mary, who in Bethlehem represents the essence of the tenderness both paternal and maternal of God, when she cradles the Divine “Baby”. And the newness of Christmass is again resplendent with this theological truth : in Hosea 11, God says rightly that He will not come in anger, because He is “God and not human”. With the coming of Jesus, a decisive stage is reached : the Holy God who stands in the midst of us is made man, a small child (without ceasing to be God)”.
Prayer :
Heart of Jesus, full of love and kindness, have mercy on us.
