March 15/First Saturday of Lent
Blessed are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart. ~ Ps. 119.1-2
Who among us can honestly look in the mirror and say that her way is blameless, or that he truly walks in the law of the LORD, or that she seeks God with all her heart? No one I know adheres perfectly to God’s path; all of us fall off the soft shoulder of that narrow road from time to time. But we fall, as the ancient desert father said, so that we may rise again. We stumble, we pick ourselves up, we ask for forgiveness and guidance, and by the grace of God, we keep plying the path forwards. The seeking is all. It is the sincerity of the effort we put into striving for holiness that matters; it is the earnestness of our searching for God that signifies. Or as Thomas Merton, the twentieth-century Trappist monk, writer and theologian, prayed, “I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.” To walk in the law of the Lord does not mean we adhere unwaveringly to a rigid set of rules; rather, it points to the importance of putting God at the center of everything we do. To observe his decrees means to love God and our neighbor with every ounce of our being. And to seek him with all our heart means that we intentionally locate the spiritual times and places, through faithful prayer and regular worship, in which our human longing for the peace of God can be articulated and fulfilled.
Lord God, Grant that I may truly place you at the center of my thoughts and actions. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031525.cfm
To hear the Tallis Scholars sing “Blessed Are Those That Be Undefiled in the Way,” by Thomas Tallis, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Jg88Fj-hg
