psalm 126 - restore us to a restored situation - 16th week tuesday

Our psalm today, psalm 126, talks about joy, real joy, so much so that "the mouth is filled with laughter and the tongue is bursting with rejoicing."  Why is there joy in the psalmist?  It was clearly not because he hit a jackpot, not because he just closed a good business deal, not because his son or daughter graduated at last from college, and neither because he or she is naturally disposed to joy, always smiling, always jovial.  That is not the joy of Psalm 126.  The joy of psalm 126 is the joy of restoration.  "Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the torrents in the southern desert."  The word fortunes in this psalm does not mean wealth or land but the joy of being restored.  
Ay daw kabudlay no?  
Pero this is how scholars say it should be translated – Restore us, O Lord to this restored situation.  Joy here is not acquiring something new like bag-o akon balay, nami akon awto.  It is not something added but it is something already there kag ginbalik lang liwat.

Last Saturday I celebrated the wedding of a former seminarian and he gave me, actually us, a difficult time kay luyag niya tatlo gid kami ang ma sermon.  Subong, magpakasal gani ang mga seminarista namon sang una ka demanding sa ila, siguro kay gabalos lang sila kay demanding man kami sa ila sang una.  So tatlo gid kami ang masermon.  The gospel is about divorce, a very difficult gospel to reflect on because the tendency is give a catechesis on marriage rather than a homily.  In this gospel Jesus says it was never the intention of God that marriages end in divorce for what God has joined together let no man put asunder. 

So why is there divorce, why is there separation?  Jesus pointed out to one thing – there is separation because of the hardness of heart.  Jesus never mentioned that separation comes from financial problems or because of irreconcilable differences in our personality.  No.  Jesus only mentioned hardness of heart.  Indi bala pagpatig-aha ang imo tagipusuon – make it docile, make it malleable, don't lose the ability to adjust, to bend, to be flexible, to forgive, to forget, to overlook.  Jesus is saying that from the beginning there was no divorce because your heart was not made like that.  God did not intend to make your hearts hard.  It was man's doing that created hardness of heart, the same hardness of heart that eventually created separation and divorce. 

Indi man amo kita sini kaisip sang una, indi bala?  Sang nagligad sa seminaryo sumbaganay ang duha ka grade seven – ay grabe ang kaakig – hibi, singgit, mapatig-agaw gid kay mabalos gid.  Then pagkahapon kita ko sila nga duha updanay, nagakulokadlaw.  Ok na kamo?  "Ok na der."  Daw wala lang may natabo. 

Originally indi gid man tig-a aton tagipusuon sa bagay nga daw kadalom gid sang kaugot, indi bala?  Sang una nagahampang man kita sa bata sang aton labandera, nagapahiray pa gani kita sip-on, daw wala man ta naga-isip nga la-in kita sang sa ila, indi bala?  Sang una daw kaalwan man sa aton – daw wala man to gani bili ang kwarta para sa aton - unlike subong nga nagakabingkong ang aton kwarta antes buy-an, subong ngaa naga-isipay na kita? 

This is the prayer of Psalm 126, Restore us O Lord to a restored situation, kon ano kami sang una, and we will be happy again, there will be laughter again in our mouths and there will be rejoicing in our tongues.