March 31/Tuesday of Holy Week
For you are my hope, O LORD; my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength. ~ Ps 71.5-6
Flux and motion seem to be the prevailing modes of existence these days, exacerbated by the rapid pace of news transmission on social media, the unsettling and swiftly developing uses of artificial intelligence, and daily challenges to institutional and civic norms. Stability is hard to come by, and for younger generations especially, everything must feel tenuous and impermanent. In a world of such change, long-lasting commitments can be a beacon of hope. A sixty-eighth wedding anniversary, a fiftieth high school reunion, a retirement after forty years – these milestones testify to the beauty of sustained bonds. The stability and trust that emerge from relationships that have endured troubles and joys, peaks and valleys, enthusiasms and distractions, are among the great goods of human life. The durability of yearslong bonds comes to scaffold our lives — support that we need and appreciate more than ever in these trying times. As the German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to a young couple preparing to get married, “It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.” Human commitments uplift and comfort us. So, too, may we find reassurance in God’s rock-solid and reliable presence in our lives, celebrated in today’s psalm. God has created us to be His own; he has offered us his strength and protection from before we were born. We don’t always show ourselves to be equally reliable — anyone who traverses the path of faith knows that it is anything but a linear progression. We zig and zag, we stop and start, we backtrack and plunge ahead. All the while, God remains a firm and trustworthy presence. Whatever changes we face, at any stage of our lives, we can depend on God as our strength and our hope.
Lord of life, As I grow and change through the years, let me acknowledge you continually as my unshakeable support. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033126.cfm
To hear the Westminster Abbey Choir sing “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3zrSIIvTqQ&list=RDv3zrSIIvTqQ&start_radio=1
