March 22/Fifth Monday of Lent
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ~ Ps 23.5
Setting a beautiful table is a way of honoring one’s guests. Whether it is a small Ikea table laid for two with simple utensils, humble dinnerware, and a posy of wildflowers , or an imposing mahogany dining table adorned with starched linens, delicate bone china, crystal glasses, and elegant silver, a prepared table signals care for those we have invited. In today’s psalm, God lays just such a table for us — but with a twist. We are asked in, not in the presence of our friends, but of our enemies. Today, those “enemies” might include external threats such as disease that stalks us (hello, COVID) or social media trolls, financial hardship or an alienated friend. The more insidious foes, however, are those invisible forces within us that draw us away from God and make us unworthy of his invitation. For some it might be a quickness to anger, or a tendency to procrastination. For others, it will be indifference to God, envy of a friend’s good fortune, or spiritual pride. Whatever these enemies are, we may feel that they disqualify us from being in the presence of God; as the Roman centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” But God, who sees our strengths and faults with crystal clarity and yet loves us beyond reason, welcomes us still. In George Herbert’s poem “Love Bade Me Welcome,” the poet shrinks from his Lord’s invitation: “Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,/Guiltie of dust and sinne.” Love — the Lord — invites us to the table not because we are good, but because he is God, and because his merciful love, as we have known since Ash Wednesday, is abundant. Broken and imperfect as we are, at the table of God, we will always be welcomed.
Loving and generous Lord, I offer you thanks for your ever-outstretched hand and your boundless mercy. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032221.cfm
To read George Herbert’s “Love Bade Me Welcome,” click here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44367/love-iii
To hear Jamie Hall perform “Love Bade Me Welcome,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6qdVsAGni4
