Psalm 146 - to be blessed is not a possession but an attitude - 11th wk tuesday

Our responsorial psalm, psalm 146 says that they are blessed whose help is the God of Jacob, they are blessed whose hope is in the LORD, his God.  What does it mean to be blessed?  To be blessed means to be makarioi meaning to be fully satisfied.  In many translations makarioi is translated as simply happy.  But to be happy nowadays may not completely convey the meaning of what the bible means when it says blessed.  You have work and so you are happy.  You paly a game in your tablet and you feel happy.  Your children won this and that competition and you say you feel happy.  But are you fully satisfied? 

Full satisfaction means I am content, I have enough.  Not all happy people are fully satisfied people for many times happiness brought about by something begets a desire for even more of that something.  Isn't it that we are never satisfied with money?  Isn't it that we are not satisfied with the things that we have?  We would always desire for more, we would always work for more.

Psalm 146 however teaches us that full satisfaction can only come when we rely on God's help.  Full satisfaction can only come when our hope for the future is in the Lord our God.  Contentment here is not a possession of something but an attitude that whatever happens, whatever the future has in store, God can be trusted.  With God we may not be the richest, we may not be the most beautiful or the brightest, but we are content with what is, we are content with what we have.  We are content because we are confident that God will provide for our needs.  And so we are not envious of the good of others, we are not greedy, we are not running after things and expectations which leaves us stressed and worried.  We have faith that God will take care us of and that for the bible is makarioi.

When I started as rector of the seminary six years ago I was worried a lot – worried where to get money for the deficit, worried that we cannot give a good formation program for the seminarians, worried that we are not forming good priests, worried that we are not attracting boys and men to the seminary.  And so I became overworked and over worried and over stressed, and many times I became too sensitive and irritated.  Then one day I realized that I don't own the seminary.  I realized that I don't own the church.  I realized that I am not the harvest master who calls men to the priestly vocation.  These are God's. And if this is his, then he will take care of it in his own way, in his own will.  It was only then that I became calm and relaxed.  I was blessed, I am content with what is, knowing and believing that God will provide for all our needs.  And God did.  They are blessed whose help is the God of Jacob, they are blessed whose hope is in the LORD, his God.