Today's reading continues the theme of God's judgment. It begins by mentioning the turning to God of those who had not thought of Him before and were ready to rely on anything at all except Him (vv. 1-3). But on closer inspection, this turning, as we see, proved rather superficial (vv. 3-5). In principle the situation described can be considered typical: many remember God only when it becomes clear to them that no one and nothing else is able to help. And when help is received, they just as easily forget God, hoping that they will never again have to find themselves in such a position, that what happened to them was something exceptional, the kind of thing that happens to a person once in a lifetime, and even then not to everyone, but only to those especially unlucky.

But such an attitude toward God is usually characteristic of unbelieving people, or of people who do not think about God, those who in days of prosperity hardly remember Him. In Hosea's preaching, however, the matter concerns believers, or at any rate those who considered themselves such. They, at least, should in no way have forgotten God; they should not have waited for a critical situation in order to remember Him.

Why, then, do these religious people in practice behave the same way as unbelievers? The prophet's reminder of the priorities of spiritual life can serve as an answer to the question (v. 6). Hosea, of course, is not speaking here against sacrifice as such. He only reminds them that if there is no mercy in that capacious sense in which the prophet uses the corresponding Hebrew word, sacrifice loses its spiritual meaning. For originally sacrifice was nothing other than a form of communion with God, a shared meal of God and people, which is impossible without mercy, and therefore without the fullness of trust in the Most High. Spiritual life presupposes relationship above all, whether a person's relationship with God or with neighbor. If there is no trust in God, sacrifice ceases to be a spiritual event and becomes only a religious obligation, which, like any religious obligation, can be performed purely mechanically.

Moreover, sacrifice understood in this way easily turned into a kind of tribute that the people paid to God, expecting in return something which, as it seemed to them, they now had the right to demand according to the covenant they had made, and above all, of course, earthly prosperity. And when it disappeared, interest in God disappeared with it, in the God who could not or would not provide such prosperity. Then began the search for something or someone that could guarantee this prosperity independently of God, on whom, as it seemed to the seekers, one could not rely. Thus distrust of God destroys relationship with Him and leads a person first to religious formalism, and then to open paganism.

Today's reading is wholly devoted to rebuking God's people and warning of the judgment awaiting them (v. 1). It would seem that there is nothing here to distinguish God's judgment from human judgment: the people are guilty, the evidence of their guilt is plain, and the day comes when God, as the supreme Judge, will pronounce His sentence. And yet in this divine judgment there is something completely incomprehensible and unthinkable from the point of view of human ideas about justice.

It turns out that God's judgment cannot take place until the people acknowledge their guilt. The Lord leaves them and withdraws in order to wait for this acknowledgment (v. 15). It is expected that it will be accompanied by turning to God, with a request both for judgment and for help. From a human point of view, such an approach looks rather strange: earthly courts exist above all to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. Here, however, it turns out that God sees His task as Judge only in determining the measure of punishment for those who themselves acknowledge their guilt, and also in helping the guilty person so that he can be freed from the sin that led to the crime.

As for determining guilt, no court as such is needed here. The disasters that befall the people bear eloquent witness to it (vv. 9-12), and it is precisely in them that the prophet sees God's punishment. However, these troubles do not have the proper effect on the consciousness of those being punished: the people do not perceive them as punishment from God and, trying to escape them, turn to everyone except the One who could truly help (vv. 13-14).

The result is a paradox: one can be delivered from God's punishment only by turning to God and asking Him for judgment! At first glance this turn of events seems completely incomprehensible. But if judgment is nothing other than the moment of meeting God face to face, as was already revealed to Amos, much here falls into place. For then it becomes obvious that the true punishment is not God's action but, on the contrary, His inaction, which leaves a person alone with his sins and their consequences.

Of course, God's nonintervention in events can also be called punishment in a certain sense, but only in a certain sense: God does not intervene in the situation, and therefore nothing that happens to a person in that case can be considered a consequence of His will. Theologians call this "permission": a state in which God neither wants nor does evil, but also does not prevent it from happening, leaving the person free to act. And then the person can only reap the fruits of the evil he has sown. Only God, by intervening in the situation again, can deliver a person from this fate.

Wrath is poured out on all who have fallen into sin, but especially on those placed at the head of the people: kings and priests. Everyone will be called to account for his deeds, but the leaders of the people, called to preserve the Higher Truth, will be called to account especially, because more has been given to them. The description of the consequences of sins and lawlessness is severe.

But precisely here, after all the warnings, we again hear words of hope, a prophecy of the Lord's mercy and a promise of the coming Resurrection. The fact that the prophecy speaks of resurrection on the third day makes it possible for us to see in these words one of the first prophecies of the coming Resurrection of Christ, although here it is speaking about people, about the raising of the people from sin and darkness. But there is no contradiction here, because the Son of God became incarnate precisely in order to share our earthly path with us and give us hope of being raised together with Him.

And it is precisely here that what are perhaps the central words of the book of Hosea sound: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. These words, long familiar and well memorized, still continue to surprise us today if we look at them with fresh eyes. How can this be? Are all our efforts, our labors, everything we have sacrificed, really all in vain?

Yes, all our efforts can turn out to be empty and futile if we sacrificed with a hard heart, remaining merciless toward those around us, and all the more if we turn our relationship with the Lord into a transaction.