March 14/Second Monday of Lent
Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors . . .
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.
Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise. ~ Ps 79.8a, 11, 13
Living in a city that is steeped in history, I am constantly aware that my life, like the life of the city itself, exists on an historical continuum. Judging from the popularity of ancestry.com and such DNA testing services as 23andMe, I am not alone. Many of us want to know more about the generations that came before. We query our parents and grandparents, gleaning from them our family values and mores. We celebrate the arrival of the next generation, aware that we are stewards of the new lives in our midst. We may even carry this generational consciousness into our prayers, as we petition God to heal a sick grandmother or to propel a young student to success in the school play, aware of God’s watchful care over all those who were, and are, and are to come. The psalmist, immersed in a deeply kinship-oriented culture, similarly embraces time past, present, and future in his song. And we are invited to pray with him. “Do not hold us accountable for the wrongs of those who precede us,” we ask first, with a nod to forebears who perhaps made culturally-sanctioned mistakes that seem abhorrent to us today. Next, we acknowledge that we are held back in the present by our own sins, and can be freed only by the power of God’s mighty arm (the literal translation of “your great power”). And finally, a promise for the future: newly saved, and indebted beyond measure to the one who has saved us, we can pass on this legacy, and recount these songs of thankfulness and praise, from one generation to the next, in an unbroken chain of gratitude to God.
O God who never changes, who is present to us from generation to generation, Grant that I may always be grateful for your steadfast presence and your saving help. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031422.cfm
To hear the Kings College Choir sing “O God Our Help in Ages Past, Our Hope for Years to Come,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4WCLlC-LLs
