March 19/Fifth Tuesday of Lent
The steadfast love of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. ~ Ps 89.2
As a new mother who many years ago left a job in a prestigious cultural institution to be at home with two young children, I sometimes wondered what the point of my life was. One day slid into the next, a blur of picture books and playgrounds and baby food and naps (thank goodness for the naps!), and I struggled to see how what I was doing contributed to the greater good of the world. As I look back, I have a fuller appreciation for that precious time, of course, and see also that my struggles forced me to grow in ways that I might not otherwise have grown. It can be hard for us to understand God’s designs, especially when we feel stuck in an environment or a job or a family situation that feels limiting, even stifling. I imagine that Joseph, whose solemnity we observe today, also wrestled with God’s larger purpose as he obeyed the angel and took his fiancée, bearing the Son of God, into his home. Like Joseph, we are called to trust in God’s steadfast love, which in biblical Hebrew is a resonant term called chesed. Even when we can’t see or understand, especially at those times, God has a vision of each of us. As the great 19th-century convert and priest St. John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote, “God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. . . He has not created me for naught. . .Therefore I will trust him. . . He knows what he is about.” God does indeed know what he’s about, and if we trust in his abundant loving-kindness, he will show us where to go and what to do, even when it is beyond our understanding.
Ever-faithful Lord, Grant me the courage to trust in your steadfast love above all else, even when I cannot see beyond the day’s horizon. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031924.cfm
To hear the congregation of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, sing “My Song Forever Will Record,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkLbnoWbyg
