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Did you know that? There’s the 1st and 2nd Reading, and the Gospel, right? What’s missing?
If you said the Responsorial Psalm (usually the song between the 1st & 2nd Reading), then you are correct. Technically, it is a reading, taken from the Book of Psalms. Every week there is a different Psalm—however, due to a variety of reasons, the exact Psalm for each weekend is not always used. So unfortunately, we don’t hear every Psalm that is set for the Sunday Masses proclaimed.
For a long time, I didn’t pay all that much attention to the Psalm. It seemed, for the most part, over my head and not worth my time to really try to pay attention to.
Sheesh.
Where do I get off thinking that the WORD OF GOD isn’t worth my time?? I think the reason this happens for many of us (because I know I’m not the only one) is because we hold the Church, Scripture, and all of its teachings, at arm’s length. We hear it, but we don’t reflect on it. So we say, “Oh that’s nice,” or, “I’ve heard that before,” or, “That doesn’t apply to me.” The reason so many people say the Church isn’t relevant is that we don’t allow it to be. There is so much depth to the Church, our traditions and teachings, and what it means to be Catholic, that taking it all at surface level won’t mean anything.
I have been a Catholic my entire life, yet it took until just this year (as in 2017) for me to really focus on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist—and let me tell you, it rocked my world. Now, I’ve known that Jesus is present in the Eucharist. I’ve known the prayers that we say. But I finally was able to focus completely on that during Communion. As I was pouring the Blood of Christ into each of the chalices, I was thinking, praying, “This is the Blood of Christ.” As Fr. Jeronimo approached me and held out Jesus’ Body, I focused on Him as I received Him. As I consumed Him. And then as I was waiting for the other ministers to finish receiving Him, this immense peace and joy overtook me. It was beautiful. The music only added to it and made the experience all the more prayerful (thank you, 5:30 Worship Band & Choir).
33 years. That’s how long it took for me to get to this point. And I don’t want to let it go. I want to experience that every single time I participate in Mass. And as beautiful and awesome as that was, I know it’s just a small morsel of what God is offering me. And the only thing that held me back from experiencing this sooner was me. Because I allowed myself to be distracted by the world. Because I allowed myself to think, “I’ve heard this before.” Because I wasn’t willing to give God the time of day. God can only do as much in my life as I allow Him to. Because He gave us free will. I can either choose to do my own will, or I can choose to give my will up and do His will instead. Now why would I want to give up my will? Because even if I was the smartest person in the universe, God would still know better than me.
And this is where today’s Psalm comes into play—it’s so simple in it’s message, and yet so profound. It sounds so easy we tend to gloss over it and many of God’s messages like it—yet it is the most challenging thing we could ever possibly do. More challenging than any marathon, class, work, pregnancy (I asked Beth who’s been three times pregnant now), you name it—because it is something, if you decide to do, would be on top of any of the things listed.
And here’s the challenge from Psalm 40:
Here am I, Lord; I come to do Your will.
We don’t often think like this. We might say, “Okay God, apparently this is what You want for me, and it sounds okay, so I’ll do it.” But what this Psalm is challenging us to do is to say, “God, whatever You want me to do, no matter what it is or how opposing it is to my will, I’ll do it.”
I’ve told God that I want to do His will, but I know, from my actions, that I don’t mean that as wholeheartedly and sincerely as I should. There is only so much of His will that I have been willing to do. But over time I have given and will continue to give Him more and more.
