Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Responsorial Psalm is taken from Psalm 27. Psalms 22 & 23 are the most loved and known of the 150 Psalms, but today’s rendition from Psalm 27 is certainly a familiar one.
When we sing/pray the Psalms we are singing divinely inspired words. By singing/praying the Psalms we learn how to speak to and listen to the God of salvation. Some Psalms are over 3,000 years old, and when we sing/pray them, we spiritually connect ourselves to the entire Body of Christ, to our Jewish brothers and sisters, to Mary, Joseph and the apostles, and to our ancestors in the faith across time. For these reasons and more, the liturgy is overflowing with the Psalms.
In today’s Liturgy of the Word we are reminded of what our good and gracious God has done for us. Our response to the saving works of the Almighty in the first reading is to respond to scripture with scripture. For this reason a Psalm is sandwiched between the first and second reading.
Like other Jews of his time, Jesus memorized and sang the Psalms several times a day. I imagine Mary and Joseph teaching them to young Jesus as he grew up in Nazareth. They were the songbook of all synagogue services he would have attended. The passion narratives of the synoptic gospels suggest that Jesus prayed Psalm 22 from the cross. As we pray and sing the Psalms, let us be reminded that we are using the same texts with which Jesus prayed. Yes, the Psalms are the prayer book of Jesus.
The Psalms express virtually every human need and emotion. At Mass or in the Liturgy of the Hours they might not express where we are at that particular time. Nevertheless it is an opportunity to remember that someone somewhere is in that place. Our question, then, is how can we pray for and serve our brothers and sisters who are currently in the emotional place expressed by the Psalm?
St. Ambrose described the Psalms as “a gymnasium for the soul.” How can we make time to pray with the Psalms intentionally this week? What kind of “workout” will we do to integrate the Psalms into the gymnasium of our lives?
—Timothy J. Cronin