psalm 145 who is god? 22nd week tuesday 2016

I have started reflecting on the responsorial psalms of the mass months ago and I don’t want to interrupt it even now that I am here in another community.  It started as a way of reminding my superiors that I have been too long in my assignment – I have finished reflecting on the gospels; I am done reflecting on the first and second readings; and now I am reflecting on the responsorial psalms.  If in the future you will hear me preaching the alleluia verse then I am already saying this is too much.  The method seems to be working.  At least they allowed me to go on vacation here in St. Aloysius for a month.

The psalms are beautiful.  The church calls these, prayers par excellence – meaning it’s a prayer like no other, surpassing even our beloved novenas.  Why, because the psalms are inspired prayers.  When we pray the psalms we pray with words that come from God himself, when we pray the psalms we pray to God with the thoughts that come from God and even with the feelings, the emotions of God himself.

Psalm 145, our psalm today is a beautiful prayer.  In fact, it is not just a prayer but a profession of faith just like the creed.  In this psalm we proclaim and acknowledge that the works of the Lord are great – his creation, the beauty that surrounds us, the life he created and sustains.  And yet greater still, greater still is his mercy towards us.

This is what Pope Benedict calls the divine portrait.  Who is God? The Lord is slow to anger and of great kindness, he is good to all and compassionate.  This is almost the same to what God affirmed himself to be in Mt Sinai when he said “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Most of us here are older now.  We have gone through a lot of things that left us wanting in life, a lot indiscretions, a lot of mistakes, we carry and are burdened with a lot of regrets.  This is our psalm, our prayer, in fact this is our faith, this is how we have come to know God:  The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.  The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.  He is the same God whom we encounter in Jesus of whom John describes as “God is love.”