March 9/Second Monday of Lent
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low. ~ Ps 79.8-9
I have certainly had moments in my life where my heart has felt hard and small and boxed in. I have felt stuck in a place of pain or anxiety that I am convinced cannot be understood, let alone soothed, even by those who know me best. “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” as the well-known and haunting spiritual puts it. Today’s psalm, riven with despair, is made for those moments. “May your compassion quickly come to us,” the psalmist cries, “for we are brought very low.” Whatever prompted the psalmist’s urgent cry for help, it is a cry we have all felt compelled to utter at one time or another. Because sooner or later, most of us run into troubles that bring us low. The forces of the world seem to be arrayed against us: family troubles, job woes, struggles in school, illness and death and loss all around. People don’t behave as we want them to, events don’t turn out as we expect them to, and we get mired in the muck of our lives. It is tempting at times like this to close ourselves off from other people and even from God. We don’t always want to admit that we are down and out. But when we muster the courage to cry out and ask God for relief, then lament is transformed into thanksgiving, and sorrow turns to joy. In the spiritual, the baleful expressions of suffering resolve in a phrase of praise, with “Glory, hallelujah!” For us, too, the somber notes of lamentation can be modulated into the joy of everlasting praise for God’s transformational forgiveness and compassion.
O God who unbinds prisoners and lifts the downtrodden, Dispatch your help to me when I cry to you from the depths. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030920.cfm
For “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJSkJlh_fg
