February 27/First Monday of Lent
The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. ~ Ps 19.8-9
Although it has been many years, I remember with crystalline clarity those early days (and nights) with a newborn. As I walked the floors in the wee hours with a wakeful bundle in my arms, I would draw on my musical repertoire, singing one lullaby after another in the hope that the babe would respond to the soothing rhythm and cadence and drift off, at least until the next feeding. Perhaps today’s psalm verses, permeated with a lilting rhythm and a melodious cadence, can perform the same function for us fretful adults, bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by the contradictions and confusions of human life. Over against the unpredictability and dissonance that trouble our souls, the psalmist offers us the unchanging teachings of God, which are “perfect” in the sense that they are complete, whole, filled with integrity. And if we pay attention to those teachings, to that decree, they will ultimately make us wise. The wise person, we know from Proverbs, is one who heeds counsel and loves God’s instructions; such a one stands in stark contrast to the gullible, the foolish, the “simple” of today’s verse. (In other words, all of us.) But the vocabulary offers a glimmer of hope: “Of the Old Testament words for ‘fool,’” a Hebrew lexicographer observed, the psalmist’s simple is “the mildest.” Contradictions and confusions abound in the world today, but as we use these weeks of Lent to cultivate and strengthen the habit of seeking God’s word and ways through praying daily, we may find that our capacity to understand, to accept, and even to embrace those contradictions increases. And we may even move to a place of wisdom.
All-wise God, Be with me as I strive to leave behind my foolishness and my susceptibility to the world’s ways and attain wisdom through the knowledge and love of You. Amen.
To hear the Acapella Company sing “More Precious Than Gold,” click here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6HxDOMt00
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022723.cfm
