March 4/First Wednesday of Lent
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
~ Ps 51.4, 12
After raising four children, I thought I knew a thing or two about laundry. But I nearly met my match with the challenges of the clothes one of my children presented to me after a solo cross-country bike ride a summer or two ago. The accumulated sweat stains from many long, hot days on the bike, the encrusted dirt of the Kansas prairie and Virginia’s country roads, the epic odors of an epic journey — every item of clothing required extensive and repeated soaking, scrubbing, and rinsing. One or two of them, alas, proved unredeemable, but in general my robust efforts paid off, and the clothes were preserved for another day. This is just the kind of spiritual purification signified by the “laundering” verbs in verse 4 of today’s psalm: a vigorous, even abrasive cleansing. The process of repenting, confessing, and being forgiven by God may hurt, at times; it may leave us feeling wrung out or depleted. But the point of such cleansing action is not to defeat us, but to restore us. We present the stains that are deeply embedded on our souls to God precisely so that we can start afresh with a clean heart and a steadfast spirit. However skilled we may be, though, we cannot remove the soil and dirt of our accumulated flaws by ourselves. Instead, we must put ourselves in the hands of the “master launderer,” and beg for his cleansing mercy. After we submit to being scrubbed clean, we may begin again on the path to holiness, renewed and restored for the journey ahead, moving forward in the light of God’s forgiving love.
Holy God, Rinse my heart of the stain of sin, and renew my spirit with your loving faithfulness. Amen.
To hear the Kings College (Cambridge) choir sing Allegri’s “Miserere Mei,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX1zicNRLmY
For today’s readings, click here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030420.cfm
