COVID-19 Bible Study Reflection #13: This Is the Day

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad” [Ps 118:24].

We all know these words, don’t we? And I’m pretty sure most of you have sung them, since they form the lyrics of that peppy little hymn written back in the 70s, “This Is the Day.”

What some folks don’t know is that those words come right out of Sacred Scripture, from Psalm 118. And because the psalms were written to be sung, and were indeed sung by Jews, including Jesus and His disciples [Mt 26:30], it’s fitting that we too should sing these same inspired words.

The psalms form a major element of the prayer life of the Jewish people, for they tell the story of God, His People, and their prayerful relationship. Although the Book of Psalms forms an integral part of the Old Testament, we encounter many references to psalms throughout the New Testament. In fact, included among the “Last Words” of Jesus, spoken from the Cross, are several direct quotes from or references to the specific psalms. [See Ps 22:2,16-19; 31:6; 69:22]

The Church considers the psalms an extremely important part of its liturgical prayer, so important they’re included in the Liturgy of the Word throughout the liturgical year. And if you pray the Church’s daily prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours, you’ll find yourself immersed in the psalms.

As you might recall, we addressed the psalms in one of our earlier reflections (Reflection #8), in which you were encouraged to include them in your daily prayer and Scripture reading. One of the wonderful things about beginning to read and pray the psalms is that you encounter so many familiar expressions and phrases and find yourself saying, “Oh, that’s where that came from…”

I’ve always believed the psalms offer us a unique view of the ever-changing relationship between God and His People, between God and you and me. That relationship changes constantly not because of God, but because of us. The psalms are filled with questions, our questions, the kind of questions you and I ask of God every day:

Why did this bad thing happen?

Has God abandoned us?

How does He want me to live?

Will God protect me and those I love from evil?

How should I relate to others, especially to those who despise me?

Will God forgive me?

These and so many other very human questions are all found in the psalms, along with many of God’s answers.

The psalms can sometimes outrage and offend us because of the attitudes expressed by the human writers, attitudes we don’t expect to encounter in prayer. And yet, are these attitudes really so different from those you and I sometimes harbor secretly in our hearts? The difference between the psalmist and us is his willingness to express them openly in his prayer, to lift them up to God as if to say:

“Lord, this is how I feel in the depth of my heart. If I am wrong, correct me. Help me to deal with all that afflicts me. Teach me Your ways.”

I really believe it’s this deep humanity found in the psalms that makes them so readable, so captivating, and brings us back to them again and again. They overflow with human emotion, every emotion you can imagine: anger, empathy, fear, despair, faith, uncertainty, joy, sadness, hope, loss, gain, revenge, forgiveness, happiness, hatred, love…it’s all there in the psalms. The transparency with which these raw emotions are displayed for all to see can shock us, for so many of us are accustomed to hiding our passions beneath a protective veneer. In the psalms it’s all out in the open, up close and personal.

We should, then, savor the psalms as we encounter them in the liturgy; but too often we just breeze through them, don’t we? We join the cantor and sing the response; then go on to the next reading. And yet, throughout the Liturgy of the Word, only in the Responsorial Psalm is the congregation actively, vocally involved. How often do we really listen to the words we pray, the words we sing? These words are the Word of God and offer countless insights into God’s love for us and the response He seeks from us They must, then, be important.

Let’s return to the beginning of today’s reflection, to those words from Psalm 118:

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.”

Here the psalmist sings of the present -- not the past, not the future. “This is the day,” he prays; and because the Lord has made this day, and because all that the Lord creates is good, this day must also be good. This, then, is reason to rejoice, “to be glad.” The present is a gift, not a time for worry or for fear.

Jesus tells us the same thing, doesn’t He? Recall His Word from the Sermon on the Mount:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear…Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself” [Mt 6:25,34].

Talk about counterintuitive and counter-cultural words! We all worry about tomorrow, don’t we? In fact, we have built multi-billion-dollar industries focused on just that. Consider, for example, the insurance industry, completely dedicated to lessening our worries about what might happen tomorrow. In today’s increasingly complex, materialistic, and unpredictable world, we insure almost everything — car, home, life, health, businesses, even pets — out of fear that these might be taken from us, leaving us with nothing but our immortal souls.

And here’s Jesus telling us those souls are far more important than everything else [Mt 16:26]. Don’t worry about tomorrow, He commands; focus instead on today. Does this mean we should cancel all our insurance policies? No, I think we can continue to pay the premiums. Indeed, in a sense I suppose a few insurance policies can help us respond more positively to Jesus’ command not to worry. I’m certainly not going to question an industry that tries to free us from some earthly worries. I’ll let the moral theologians tackle that one.

The future – our earthly future -- will always remain a mystery. In truth, we can only guess what will happen. And the past? Well, it’s already happened. It’s gone and irretrievable. Although we shouldn’t dwell on the past, we can learn from it and avoid mistakes already made – a good reason to make a daily examination of conscience, a good reason for the sacrament of Reconciliation.

I suppose we’re stuck with the present, aren’t we? It’s really the only part of time – the time of our lives -- over which we have some control. The present is where we are. The decisions and choices of the present can help us overcome the faults and confusion of the past and lead us to the future God desires for us. “This is the day…” He challenges us, “Rejoice!”

In our hearts we know this is true. We should rejoice. We should be glad about it. And do you know why? Of course, you do. Because we are loved. We are loved by our God who created each of us, who gave each of us the gift of life in a unique act of love. He wants us to rejoice in that gift, even in the midst of life’s challenges, even as we face the uncertainties of the future. So often, though, our response is littered with many of those emotions found in the psalms. And it’s here that we encounter the vast disparity between God and us. God only loves!  He can do nothing else because of Who He is. As St. John reminds us, “God is love” [1 Jn 4:8,16]. He despises none of His children, even those who have fallen prey to the worst of evils. He extends His forgiveness and His mercy to all. We need only repent and accept His gift of grace.

What does all this mean? How do we deal with it? How do we live this life that God’s given us?

First, let’s get back to the basics. We were created in God’s image and likeness. And because “God is love,” we were created to love, to be imitators of God, to be as generous and as giving of ourselves as God is. We were created to do good and reject evil.

We encounter this plea to be imitators of our God throughout Sacred Scripture. In the Torah, we hear this command, this call to holiness:

"Sanctify yourselves and be holy; for I, the Lord, your God, am holy" [Lv 20:7].

It’s a call repeated throughout the New testament. For example, Jesus instructs us:

"So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" [Mt 5:48].

Jesus also teaches us to live the Beatitudes: to be humble, merciful, meek, compassionate, and righteous [Mt 5:3-12]. He commands us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, visit the imprisoned – to see Him in all who are in need [Mt 25:31-46]. But that’s not all. Jesus also tells us:

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments" [Jn 14:15].

In His Sermon on the Mount He reveals the depth of meaning, the spirit of the Ten Commandments, and later goes on to instruct us that "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments":

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" [Mt 22:37-40].

Now that’s a lot of stuff we’re asked to do. But it's not impossible. For with God, and fueled by His grace, all things are possible. And that’s the key: we need God’s help.

Remember, too, we are called to do all this because of God’s promise to us, that we are His children, adopted sons and daughters who will share in Christ’s glory. St. Paul describes it well

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Sprit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him [Rom 8:14-17].

Note that suffering, too, will accompany us on our journey. But we do not suffer alone. It is a suffering with Jesus -- "To take up our cross daily and follow Him" [Lk 923] -- in which He shared our burdens and out suffering [Mt 11:30].

The fulfillment of God’s promise, though, is beyond our imagining:

"What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, I have prepared for those who love me" [1 Cor 2:9].

Living a grace-filled life, then, is not impossible. Through prayer and the soul restoring grace of the sacraments, God provides us all we need to live holy lives. When our journey on this earth is over, when we stand before the Just Judge, we all hope to hear the words of the Lord saying:

"Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" [Mt 25:34]

Let us, then, learn from the past, not worry about or fear the future, and live this day in faith, filled with God’s grace. Let us rejoice and be glad!