February 20/First Tuesday of Lent
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears to their cry for help.
When the righteous cry out, the LORD hears, and from all their troubles he rescues them.
Near is the LORD to the brokenhearted, and the crushed in spirit he saves. ~ Ps 34.15, 17, 18
Body Language
We are promised today that God will see and hear our travails, and that he will respond. Can we truly believe this? After all, this is the creator of the universe, the maker of all the earth and every living thing; it is he who stretches out the heavens like a tent, who rides on the wings of the wind, who sets the earth on its foundations (see Ps 104). Does this transcendent deity have ears and eyes? Can he hear our cries and see our petty travails? The anthropomorphic language — which we encounter frequently in the Hebrew scriptures — is our attempt to describe the mystery of God through personal metaphor. It expresses trust that God both perceives and acts at times of distress. Sometimes the rescue comes dramatically, even miraculously — the cancer that disappears, the job that is preserved. Sometimes, God chooses to let us remain in our troubles. But as today’s psalm attests, even in those moments when suffering dominates, God is close to us. Cardinal Newman said it well: “We know He is in heaven, and forget that He is also on earth.” Our hearts can be shattered and our spirits crushed by many forces — divisive politics and personal sadness, the struggles of the poor and the despair of the sick. Yet we have faith that he will take our pain as his own. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from Tegel prison, where he had been incarcerated for over a year, “God’s deliverance is not to be found in every experience of human suffering. But in the suffering of the righteous God’s help is always there, because he is suffering with God. God is always present with him.”
Lord God, Creator and preserver of us all, Hear my cries, see my sorrows, and always remain near to me, even in times of confusion and pain. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022018.cfm
