psalm 119 - love for god's word - 25th week tuesday 2016

Today we allow once more our responsorial psalm to guide us in our meditation.  Psalm 119 may have used a lot of words like law, precepts, commands, ordinances but these refers only to one thing - God’s word.  And the verbs he uses in relation to God’s law are - to walk in it, to understand it, to meditate on it, to choose it, to discern it, to observe it, to be led by it, to keep it continually and to delight in it.

Today in our gospel Jesus puts before us the real reason why Mary is Blessed.  She is blessed not because she bore him in her womb, not because she is Mother of God, but because she listened to God’s word to her and acted on it.  St Augustine himself said “Mary heard God’s word and kept it, and so she is blessed. She kept God’s truth in her mind, a nobler thing than carrying his body in her womb.”

Today we are called to love God’s word.  It is loved not just because of its saving power, not just because we are commanded to do so and we need it in order for us to be saved.  No.  We should love God’s word because it has the capacity to give joy – to delight in God’s word.  Why?  Because a prayerful person finds comfort in God’s word, she finds assurance in it, he finds affirmation and strength.

Do we also have the same attitude as psalmist and like Mary to God’s word?  Do we devour it like a person hungry for food?  Do we make extra effort in listening, reading, studying, discerning God’s word?  If I am meditating with you on the psalms for this past month now it is because I want to force myself to study it also, to be challenged by it and to connect this to the gospel, to the teachings of Jesus.

The point is, we must develop in us a love for God’s word – it is a guide, it comforts and it is a delight.