psalm 144 - life is a battle - 25th week friday 2016

Psalm 144 is a psalm prayed in the face of battle.  The first verse which was not read in mass is a thanksgiving to God for teaching the psalmist to fight – “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.”  Thus he then calls us with terms used for the military – God is a fortress, a stronghold, a bulwark, the deliverer and a trusted shield. 

In the communion of the saints there is the church triumphant – referring to those in heaven; there is the church suffering – those in purgatory; and there is the church militant referring to all of us here on earth.  Militant – the word connotes struggling, fighting, doing battle.  I believe it is important to be reminded by the psalm of this imagery of earthly life.  Of course not in the physical sense but in the spiritual sense – that life is a battle against evil forces up to destroy us, that life is a struggle against the temptations of greed, the temptations of lust, temptations of anger and impatience.  We are fighting the evil of injustice, of racial discrimination, and the evil that belittles life from its beginning unto its end.  We are in battle for the triumph of the values of the kingdom in us and around us, every day of our lives.

And yet the second stanza of our psalm reminds us too that we are man.  We are weak and short-lived, a man who is only a breath, whose days are like a passing shadow.  And yet God took notice of us, he loved us despite our unworthiness. What is man that you should be mindful of him?  Again we are reminded that on our own we cannot hope for anything in this world.  Only by God’s mercy do we hope to prosper.

In the gospel today Jesus predicts to his disciples his passion and death.  Like Jesus our master we too suffer while we are in this world, but in the end of this dire prediction comes the triumph of the resurrection on the third day.  We are greatly encouraged today by God’s word as St. Padre Pio was encouraged too despite his many sufferings for Jesus.  God will one day bring good to triumph over evil.  This is our faith and this is our hope.