Liturgical Psalm for March 20, 2019
Wednesday of the second week of Lent.
In today’s first reading we hear of the resistance and rejection of the prophet Jeremiah by some of God’s chosen people. For our reflection upon this, the liturgy presents us with five verses from the twenty four verses of Psalm 31, i.e. verses 4 & 5, and 13, 14 & 15. Especially vs. 13: “I hear the whispers of the crowd, that frighten me from every side, as they consult together against me, plotting to take my life.” Sounds like it could have been uttered by Jeremiah himself. More importantly, it could have been uttered by Jesus, who as we hear in today’s Gospel, sees that He is facing a terrible execution. Perhaps the greatest mystery we face in this life is the phenomenon that evil frequently happens to those who try to do good. The paradigm for disciples of Christ is that in some way we all are destined to suffer in some way with Him; that we die with Him in order to rise with Him. In the meantime our prayer must ever be that of vs. 14: “…my trust is in you, O LORD.”