March 28/Fifth Tuesday of Lent
O LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily. ~ Ps 102.2-3
When the road gets rough, or life goes awry — or as the psalmist puts it, “on the day of our distress” — we often blame God for being absent. The job falls through, the relationship sours, the outcome disappoints us, and we immediately send up our reproach: “Where are you, God? Why aren’t you looking out for me?” Certainly the ancient singer of today’s psalm experienced God as absent, and his words give us permission to voice our own anger, disappointment, or anxiety in our prayers. It is not all praise and glory! At the same time, however, we need to be honest about who has gone missing. As people of faith, we are in a relationship with the living God, who loves us endlessly and asks that we love him in response. How well are we doing at “staying in touch?” If we reflect honestly, we may conclude, with Orthodox Archbishop Anthony Bloom (who wrote widely on prayer), that “God could complain about us a great deal more than we about Him. We complain that He does not make Himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the twenty-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer ‘I am busy, I am sorry’ or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our minds, of our conscience, of our life?” The more we can dedicate ourselves to being aware of God – sending up a flash prayer for someone, saying a quick thanks for a small blessing – and being animated by God’s will all the day long, the more we will sense that presence in our midst, just when we need it most.
Attentive and ever-faithful God, May I strive to be as faithful to you as you are to me. Amen.
To hear the Taizé chant “O LORD hear my prayer,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMwAbTevunA
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032823.cfm
