psalm 95 - living in god's presence - 27th sunday C

Psalm 95 our responsorial psalm today is referred to as the Invitatory Psalm by the church.  Those of you who pray the liturgy of the hours (as priests, nuns and monks we are obliged to pray the liturgy of the hours) are familiar with this psalm because this is prayed daily, in fact this is the first prayer of the day.  As we wake up, as we begin the day, some of us still sleepy, still yawning perhaps, some of us struggling with the pains of arthritis, but as we start the day we are made to pray, “Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us; Oh, that today you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

This is the first prayer and it is invitatory because it is inviting us to live in the presence of God; it has the task of making us aware, making us conscious that today, this very day, now, and every day - we live in God’s holy presence. 

Psalm 95 gives us three things so as to live in God’s presence.

First sing, sing joyfully, be happy.  So every morning as we pray this psalm we are reminded to rejoice, to be happy, to sing joyfully because we are after all living in God’s presence. 

I am a very anxious person, I worry a lot.  I feel restless whenever I am not in the seminary in the Philippines, in the responsibility given to me by the bishop.  I feel responsible and I feel I need to be there so that whatever happens I am there.  So imagine my difficulty when Fr. Ralph asked me to come here to New Jersey for a month and a half. But it helped a lot when I came across the prayer of Pope St John XXIII every time he had to face problems in the church.  It is a prayer I made my own telling the Lord one day, “Well, Lord this is your seminary, this is not mine, so you take care of it.  Now I’m going to New Jersey.”

Stop getting anxious.  Be happy.  We are living in God’s presence. 

Second to bow down – early in the morning in prayer we are told to bow down.  Living in the presence of God we need to bow.  Why? because it was God who made us and it is God who sustains us.  It is good to be reminded of this reality as we start our day – without God we can do nothing or as another psalm says unless the Lord builds the house in vain do the builders labor.

In my ordination 23 years ago I can still remember the words I said to the people when I asked for their prayers for me now that I am a priest.  I said, “in my life I have come to know where my efforts end and where God’s grace begins.” So bow down, be humble, know your limits. 

Third as we start the day we are reminded by psalm 95 to listen to God. Oh, that today you would hear his voice: “Harden not your hearts.”  Listening to God during the day is important. It allows us to open ourselves to the possibilities to respond to needs in our community, of making ourselves available to the call of the times, of keeping ourselves open to God's invitation, of allowing ourselves to be led by God to what really pleases him.

I have told you once of Mother Teresa’s answer when she was asked if she was ready to go to the moon.  She said, "If there are poor people on the moon, we will go there too." So imagine a group of nuns training to become astronauts in NASA so that they can go to the moon to serve the poor.  The point however is not the "going to the moon" but the attitude of opening ourselves, making ourselves available, listening to the possibilities of serving and loving the Lord in the persons around us during the day. 

I am really touched by the cleaners of your church every Monday morning – they are here cleaning the church without fail and on their own initiative.  Our altar servers here so very young and yet already serving the Lord.  Do you know why the apostle John is called the beloved disciple?  St Thomas Aquinas said, it is because he served the Lord even while he was yet very young.  See them there, looking innocent, but they are the beloved of the Lord.

And that’s the point of the gospel too.  Faith is not limited to doing works of marvel, great works like uprooting a tree and transferring it elsewhere, or healing a sick person by the touch of your hands.  No.  Jesus is not making his disciples into magicians.  And not all of us can become healers.  Rather the faith that Jesus is offering today is the faith that allows us to open ourselves to the many possibilities of service, possibilities of loving, possibilities of caring – to simply and humbly do what needs to be done whether big or small, great or trivial – because it needs to be done.   That’s what a servant of God does.

So as we start our day pray always Psalm 95.  It will put us in a proper perspective.  It will help us live in God’s presence the whole day through joyful and happy, trusting and humble, listening and heedful to the opportunities to serve during the day.