March 27/Fifth Friday of Lent
I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer,
My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! ~ Ps 18.2-3
Rock, fortress, and stronghold. Such rugged metaphors befit a psalm that is said to be an expression of gratitude to God after a military victory. What, then, might it mean to praise God in these terms? After all, the battles we fight today do not usually bring us into contact with swords or shields, fortresses or strongholds. Some of us may even feel that military metaphors are out of place when talking about love and salvation. And yet we struggle daily in a world that seems beset by chaos, swamped by troubles, and irretrievably broken: or as Jeremiah cries in today’s first reading, “terror on every side!” When we feel engulfed by what the psalmist calls “the breakers of death,” or enmeshed by “the cords of the nether world,” we do have a safe place to turn, of course, and that place is God. He is our fixed and reliable sanctuary: steady as a rock, safe as a fortress, immovable as a stronghold. And the path to that sanctuary lies through prayer. In praying every day, whether we spend time with God upon rising, take a few moments for midday Mass or quiet reflection, or spend time before bed thinking over the day’s events and encounters, we are also seeking the peace and safety of God’s love. But we are not meant to linger in that shelter indefinitely. Rather, prayer time is a pause for restoration and renewal in which we gather our scattered selves up in the healing light of God’s grace, and head back out into the world. As Evelyn Underhill observed, “In prayer, we open up our souls to the Divine energy and grace perpetually beating in on us; and receive that energy and grace, in order that it may be transmuted by our living zest into work.”
Lord of strength and peace, Surround me with your protecting love amid the world’s strife. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032726.cfm
To hear the Chichester Cathedral Choir sing Jeremiah Clarke’s “I Will Love Thee, O Lord,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaBx5DasAG4&list=RDgaBx5DasAG4&start_radio=1
