How many of us really pay attention to the responsorial psalm in the liturgy? It is repetitive and, if read in a sing-song manner, can be distracting. The priests, most of the time, explain in their homilies the Gospel and the 1st reading (or 2nd reading for that matter) but seldom touch on the responsorial psalm. But the Psalms are as equally important as the other liturgical readings. It may talk about Israel’s successes and failures, their victories and defeats, sinfulness and restoration, rise and fall as a nation – but the psalms can become our own as well. Jesus, being a faithful Jew, must have known the psalms by heart. For our reflection, let us meditate on today’s responsorial psalm. Prayerfully and repetitively read the verses. Allow the words to be your own life’s psalm.
The Word from the Vine: Ps 130:1b-2, 3-4ab, 7-8
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
Let Israel wait for the LORD,
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?
The Word Made Fresh (Reflection)
The first image that comes to mind upon reading the psalm is that of a beggar in dire need yet patiently waiting for passers-by to drop a tiny penny on his tiny tin can. The psalmist must have been pushed to the edge and so with utter pain he cries out: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD, hear my voice!” How many times in your life have you experienced a crisis moment – when instead of hearing God’s voice for consolation, you hear nothing but deafening silence? And yet despite this, you continue to hold on to your faith in Him; You to turn to Him because you know deep in your heart that God has never abandoned you.
Sometimes the problem with us is that we fail to recognize how God has quietly worked in and through our lives. He works in ways we cannot see, as the popular Don Moen song goes. In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius includes in his Contemplatio ad Amorem a meditation on how God continues to labor in one’s life so that when one eventually makes the offering of self, “Take Lord receive my liberty, understanding and entire will,” he also recognizes how he is God’s work in progress.
This brings me to a second point about forgiveness. The psalmist is humble enough to acknowledge his iniquities before the Lord and makes a plea to him, “If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?” It may appear as a way to appease God’s wrath but to me, it is an affirmation of God’s boundless and unconditional mercy. We find it hard to believe this reality but when I say his mercy is unconditional, IT IS UNCONDITIONAL. Period.
Most of the time, we tend to sulk over our state of sinfulness and think that God cannot forgive us. We raise our personal standard high enough that it becomes much stricter than God’s own. Mas mataas pa ang standard natin kaysa sa standard ng Panginoon; eh di para na rin tayong Diyos sa lagay na ‘yan. Instead of sulking over our sinfulness, why don’t we bask in His abiding love.
Karl Rahner writes it poignantly, “It is both terrible and comforting to dwell in the inconceivable nearness of God, and so to be loved by God Himself that the first and last gift is infinity and inconceivability itself. But we have no choice. God is with us.”
Go over the psalm a second time and then listen to this song by Jimmy Needham:
