March 31/Fifth Friday of Lent
Ropes of death encircled me; torrents of wickedness assailed me;
Ropes of Sheol entangled me; snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. ~ Ps 18.4-6
When my children were young, one of our favorite Richard Scarry tales (and there were many) was Mr. Frumble’s Worst Day Ever. Through light-hearted, deftly-detailed drawings and humorously detached language, the reader accompanies the green-suited, pickle-car-driving pig, Mr. Frumble, through a day that begins with burnt toast and a flooded bathroom, and proceeds through one calamity after another. This tale, and others like Judith Viorst’s classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, reflect the experience that even little people can have, of a day when everything seems to go wrong. As we grow into adulthood, the calamities intensify and become more complex: relationships fall apart, jobs don’t work out, an unexpected tragedy happens, illness strikes. Or in psalm-speak, we may feel that ropes of death are encircling us, the torrents of wickedness assailing us. When we find ourselves trapped in such a place of perdition, bound by the entangling ropes of difficulty or engulfed by confusion, how do we find a way out? Is there no exit? Our psalmist is ready with his answer. From all his dangers, toils, and snares, he sticks his head above the surface of his distress and issues an SOS, not once but repeatedly. “In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help.” And God — seemingly far away, as the psalmist envisions it, in his temple — hears, and hears immediately, as the cry of distress “reaches his ears.” In times of trouble, our connection to God is our surest lifeboat.
Answer my prayer, O LORD, when I call to you for help, entangled as I am in the difficulties and complications of my life. Amen.
To hear the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral (Oxford) sing Henry Purcell’s “I Will Love Thee” (Ps 18.1-6), click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utEqCCGaG2w
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033123.cfm
