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From: Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22 (New American Bible)
Hosea 2:14b, 15b, 19-20 (Revised Standard Version & New Vulgate)

Restoration and a New Covenant (Continuation)

(Thus says the LORD, "I will) [14b] bring her into the wilderness, and
speak tenderly to her. [15b] And there she shall answer as in the days
of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

[19] And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me
in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. [20]
I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD."

Commentary:

2:2-23. This long poem contains the key to the book of Hosea. It
explains the symbolism of the account of the poet's marriage contained
in these three chapters; and it sums up the content and form of the
oracles in the later part of the book. The poem begins (v. 2) with a
complaint by Hosea about his wife (and therefore by God about his
people); and it ends with the prospect of rehabilitation and blessing
(vv. 14-23); the second and third parts in the book also begin with a
charge laid by the Lord against his people (4:1; 12:2), and end with a
promise of salvation. The message of these verses is perfectly clear.
Like the prophet's wife, Israel has prostituted herself by worshipping
other gods. The Lord spies on her and punishes her, to get her to
return to him (vv. 2-13). But so great is his love for Israel that,
despite her infidelity, he decides to woo her all over again, to draw
her to himself, and thereby to embark on a new relationship with her
in which all will be wonderful and there will never again be
infidelity (vv. 14-23). This passage contains very rich teaching about
the nature of God: the initiative is always his; he is not indifferent
to the infidelity of his followers; if he watches what they do and
punishes them, he does so to encourage them to come back to him.
Moreover, if that does not work, he has another approach to fall back
on: he can start again from the beginning; he can renew his
relationships with his faithful and with all creation. The imagery
used to describe the rehabilitation of Israel (vv. 14-23) is very rich
and full of meaning; meditation on this passage helps the reader to
appreciate what God is really like.

The first part of the poem (vv. 2-13) begins with some words of
complaint about the unfaithful wife who has left her husband and
become a prostitute. However, the reader very soon sees that what is
being said here also applies to Israel and the Lord. From v. 8
onwards, the perspective is slightly different: the dominant theme is
the relationship between God and Israel, although the reader is also
aware of the husband-wife relationship. In this way the sacred writer
ensures that the reader can see the symbolism of the message; the
whole story, the imagery, carries a message about the Lord and his
people. The best example of the author's method is in the opening
words (vv. 2-3), which summarize the passage. They declare that the
marriage is over ("she is not my wife, and I am not her husband": v.2)
and give the reason why ("harlotry" and "adultery" in v. 2 mean the
adornments, tattoos, amulets etc. worn by prostitutes and loose women:
cf. Gen 38:15; Prov 7:10); there is also a reference to the way in
which an adulterous wife was shunned (v. 3): stripping the woman of
her garments is known to have formed part of the punishment of her
crime according to some laws in force in the ancient East (cf. Is
47:2-3; Jer 13:22; Ezek 16:37-39; etc.). But then he moves directly
onto the symbolic plane of God and Israel: the Israelites pay homage
to the Canaanite fertility gods, yet there is only one God, the
Creator of heaven and earth, who sends rain and makes things fertile.
That God is the Lord: he can turn Israel into a parched land (v. 3).
So, the faults that the prophet is condemning here are religious ones.
He reproves the Israelites for their feast days in honor of Canaanite
gods (vv. 11; 14); they think they ought to thank the Baals for bread
and water and the produce of the earth (vv. 5, 9, 12), whereas all
these things come in fact from the one God and Lord (v. 8).

The second part of the poem (vv. 14-23) speaks very directly about God
and his people. It proclaims that a time of salvation is coming which
will see the faithfulness of Old fully restored, stronger than ever.
It begins (vv. 14-15) by nostalgically recalling the secluded life
that they enjoyed together in the wilderness, during the exodus from
Egypt--depicted here as a sort of golden age in which the Lord was his
people's only God (v. 14; cf. 11:1-4; Amos 5:25). That is why it
mentions the Valley of Achor (v. 15), which, being near Jericho, was
the access route to the promised land. It was the scene of a sin of
infidelity, which God punished (cf. Josh 7:24-26); hence its name,
which means misadventure, misfortune; but because it is the only route
into the holy land, the Lord now calls it a "door of hope".

The text goes on (vv. 16-23) to describe the new Covenant that will be
made "on that day" (vv. 16, 18, 21). The passage deals with two
distinct themes: where the second person is used (vv. 16, 19-20), the
spousal covenant is being described; where it is in the third person
(vv. 17-18; 21-23), it is describing the effects that that covenant
will have on the whole land. The first condition of the spousal
covenant is that Israel will call her God "My husband" and not "My
Baal" (v. 16). Baal is a word that can mean god, and also lord or
husband. In wanting to be called "My husband", the Lord is rejecting
any type of mixing of religions: the God of Israel is not one more god
like the Baals; he is the only God there is. This exclusiveness in the
area of married love, which transfers over into the Covenant, spelt
out in vv. 19-20: it will last forever, it will be made in
"righteousness and in justice", that is; God will provide special
protection to Israel (cf. Mic 6:5; Jer 23:6), and it will be in
"steadfast love, and in mercy": the words that the text uses are
"hesed" and "rahamim", taking in, then, all the nuances of faithful
love (cf. the note on ls 49:15).

Later verses uses the third person (vv. 17-18,21-23) to describe the
consequences that will flow from this renewed Covenant: all creation
will enjoy the peace of Eden (v. 18), and the land of Israel will
benefit most of all (vv. 21-23). Perhaps the most significant thing
here is the use of the verb "to answer": when Israel "answers" (cf. v.
15) God's love, the heavens will answer the earth, and the earth will
answer its fruits (vv. 21-22). What this means is that nothing will be
barren, there will be no desire that goes unsatisfied; a proof of this
is the new change of names (v. 23): names implying indictment are
replaced by names of salvation.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: 2 Corinthians 3:1b-6

His Letter of Recommendation (Continuation)

[1b] Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or
from you? [2] You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written
on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; [3] and you show that
you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but
with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on
tablets of human hearts.

Christian Ministry is Superior to That of the Old Covenant

[4] Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
[5] Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as
coming from us; our sufficiency is from God, [6] who has qualified us
to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the
Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Commentary:

3:1-6:10. St Paul is accused of pride by his opponents, who have
misinterpreted his references in letters to his apostolic journeys
(cf., e.g.1 Cor 2:7-16; 4:14-21). Because he realizes that what he
said above (cf. 2:14-16) may give rise to further charges, and before
going on to confront his adversaries directly--as he does in chapters
10-13 particularly--he begins a long exposition on apostolic ministry.
He explains the superiority of his ministry over that of the Old
Covenant (3:4-18), the authority and sincerity with which that
ministry is carried out (4:1-6), and the trials and sufferings it
involves (4:7-5:10); and he goes on to justify his own conduct and the
principles which inspire it (cf. 5:11-6:10).

1-3. Letters of recommendation were commonly used in St Paul’s time
(cf., e.g., Acts 9:2; 15:22-30). Given the ironical way he refers to
them in v. 1, it would appear that his enemies, had arrived in Corinth
with some letter of this sort. Paul can present a more eloquent and
powerful letter--the Corinthians themselves: it was his preaching that
led to their conversion. He says this, St John of Avila comments,
“because they were an adequate letter to explain who St Paul was and
how beneficial his presence bad been. And he says that this letter is
one which all can know and read, because anyone, no matter how
uncultured he be, even if he does not understand the language of
words, can understand the language of good example and virtue, whose
results he can see, and so can come greatly to esteem one who has such
fine disciples” ("Audi", "Filia", chap. 34).

This letter has been written by Christ himself. St Paul and his
co-workers have always acted as scribes, and what has been written on
the hearts of the Corinthians and on the Apostle’s own heart has been
written by the Holy Spirit himself.

These references to “tablets of stone” and “human hearts” are
connected with the history of the people of Israel. On Sinai God gave
Moses tablets of stone containing the Covenant Centuries later, at the
time of the Babylonian exile, which was a punishment from God for the
unfaithfulness of the chosen people, God, through his prophets,
promised to make a New Covenant--a Law written on their hearts (cf.
Jer 31:33), giving them a new heart and new soul, taking away their
heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh (cf. Ezek 11:19; 36:26).

4-11. In these verses St Paul deals with a subject which he discusses
more fully in his epistles to the Romans and the Galatians--the
superiority of the New Covenant, through which Christ reconciles men
to God their Father, over the Old Covenant which God made with Moses.
Here he just outlines the superiority of the Apostles’ ministry over
that of Moses. The latter was a dispensation of death and condemnation
(vv. 6,7,9) and it was temporary (vv. 7, 11); that of the Apostles, on
the other hand, is a dispensation of life and salvation (vv. 6-9) and
it is permanent (v. 11). So, if the ministry of Moses was splendid,
that of the Apostles will be all the more splendid.

When St Paul speaks of a ministry of “death” and “condemnation” (vv.
7, 9), this does not mean that the Old Covenant was not something in
itself holy and just, but that the Law of Moses--part of that
Covenant--although it pointed the way to righteousness, was inadequate
because it did not give people the resources to conquer sin. It is in
this sense that the Old Law can be said to have involved death and
condemnation: for it made the sinner more conscious of the gravity of
his sin, thereby increasing his guilt (cf. Romans, chapter 7-8 and
corresponding notes): ‘For,” St Thomas Aquinas explains, “it is more
serious to sin against the natural law when that law is written down,
than against the natural law on its own” ("Commentary on 2 Cor, ad loc".).

5. The Magisterium of the Church quotes these words when teaching the
need for the Holy Spirit to enlighten and inspire man to enable him to
accept the truths of faith or choose some good connected with eternal
salvation (cf. Second Council of Orange, can. 7). Therefore, anyone is
foolish who thinks he can claim as his own the good deeds he does or
the apostolic results he obtains: they are in fact a gift from God. As
St Alphonsus says, “the spiritual man dominated by pride is the worst
kind of a thief because he is stealing not earthly things but the
glory that belongs to God [...]. For, as the Apostle tells us, we, on
our own, cannot do anything good or even have a good thought (cf. 2
Cor 3:5) [...]. Therefore, whenever we do something good, let us say
to the Lord, ‘We return to thee, O Lord, what we have received from
thee’ (cf. 1 Chron 29:14)” ("Treasury of Preaching Material", 11,6).

6. Taking up again the simile he has used in v.3, St Paul speaks about
the “letter” and the “Spirit” (cf. Rom 2:29; 7:6) to show the
difference between the Law of the Old Testament and that of the New.
The Law of Moses is the “letter” insofar as it simply publishes the
precepts which man must keep, without providing the grace necessary
for keeping them. The New Law, on the other hand, is the “Spirit”,
because it is the Holy Spirit himself who, through grace, spreads
charity in the hearts of the faithful (cf. Rom 5:5), and charity is
the fullness of the Law (cf. Rom 13:10). “What is predominant in the
law of the New Testament,” St Thomas Aquinas explains, “and whereon
all its efficacy is based, is the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is
given through faith in Christ. Consequently the New Law is chiefly the
grace itself of the Holy Spirit, which is given to those who believe
in Christ” ("Summa Theologiae", I-II, q. 106, a. 1). Hence the law of
the Gospel can also be called the law of the Spirit (cf. Rom 8:2), the
law of grace or the law of charity.

After pointing out how the Law of Moses laid down the death penalty
for certain sins, St John Chrysostom comments: “The Law, if it lays
hold of a murderer, puts him to death; the Gospel, if it lays hold of
a murderer, enlightens him and gives him life[...]. How lofty is the
dignity of the Spirit, seeing that his tables are better than those
former ones [the “tables” of the Law], for they do even greater things
than raising a dead man to life! For the death from which grace
delivers us is much more lamentable than physical death’ ("Hom. on
2 Cor", 6).