March 29/Third Saturday of Lent
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me. ~ Ps 51.4
Confession time: I love doing laundry. The sorting, the soaking, the washing and drying and folding: for me, these actions are meditative, reassuring, even relaxing (I might not have said this some years ago when I was in the throes of raising four dependably messy children, and I certainly appreciate the circumstances now that allow me to luxuriate in laundering!). In its very repetitiveness and predictability, it functions like a ritual. In her wonderful Madaleva lecture entitled The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work, Kathleen Norris wryly observed, “Both laundry and worship are repetitive activities with a potential for tedium, and I hate to admit it, but laundry often seems the more useful of the tasks.” She goes on, however, “But both are the work God has given us to do.” And it is the work God does in us, too, when we present our sin-stained selves to him for laundering. The spiritual purification signified by the Hebrew verbs for “laundering” in today’s psalm is not gentle: both kabas and tahar signify vigorous, even abrasive cleansing. The process of repenting, confessing, and being forgiven by God may hurt, at times; it may leave us feeling wrung out or depleted. But just as the point of laundering is to get the clothes clean, not to destroy them, so the point of God’s laundering action is to restore us to wholeness, to make us bright again. But we have to be willing to air our “dirty laundry” with God. Through prayer, reflection, and contrition, we put ourselves in the hands of the master launderer and beg for his cleansing mercy. And after that scrubbing, we begin again on the path to holiness, renewed and restored for the journey ahead, moving forward in the light of God’s forgiving love.
Holy and perfect God, Rinse my heart of the stain of sin, and renew my spirit with your loving faithfulness. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032925.cfm
To hear Lynne Dawson, Ian Partridge, and The Sixteen sing “Wash me throughly” from Chandos Anthem No. 3 by George Frideric Handel, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_C7Pnh7ZYs
