Wisely did the Sacred Author place this coming Sunday’s responsorial psalm as the first of the Bible’s one hundred and fifty prayerful canticles. This initial Biblical hymn offers the reader the clear spiritual choice that every believer must make every day of his or her believing life. The psalmist first celebrates the life of the dedicated believer, the faith filled soul that is daily in touch with the Lord: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers. Rather, the law of the Lord is his joy; and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted near streams of water that yields its fruit in season; its leaves never wither; whatever he does prospers (Ps1:1-3).”
The authentic believer certainly shuns the company of the wicked, the sinner and those who ridicule the ways of the Lord. Rather, the faithful believer takes delight in righteous living and moral conduct. He or she is a person of prayer, pondering regularly the Word of the Lord found in Scripture and the pious sayings of one’s forebears in the faith. Thus, the devout soul certainly will bear fruit, sustaining one’s own spiritual life and enriching the lives of one’s community.
The first psalm depicts a much grimmer picture for those who are not attentive to the ways of the Lord: “But not so are the wicked, not so! They are like chaff driven by the wind. Therefore, the wicked will not arise at the judgment, nor will sinners in the assembly of the just. Because the Lord knows the way of the just, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin (Ps1:4-6).”
The psalmist sees sinners as rootless, dust blown about by the breeze. They have no firm foundation. The Scriptures offer them little guidance and pious devotions are not their forte. Their lack of religious roots will follow them to the next world where they will not be numbered among the just but rather be consigned to the ruinous lot of the wicked.
Clearly for the psalmist life is a daily choice with serious consequences for both the good and the bad. The good, through their wise and faithful encounter with the Lord and his ways, will experience security in this life and safekeeping in the next. The wicked through their neglect of God’s direction and their earthly responsibilities will have no roots in this life and eternal isolation in the next.
The prophet Jeremiah in this Sunday’s first reading offers a similar diagnosis of the destiny of mankind: “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the wasteland that enjoys no change of season, but stands in lava beds in the wilderness, a land, salty and uninhabited. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord. They are like a tree planted beside water that stretches out its roots to the stream. It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green. In the year of drought, it shows no distress, but still produces fruit (Jer. 17:5-8).”
Once again, the world at large is offered a choice. There are those who trust in human resources, who seek strength in earthly things, who neglect the ways of the Lord. These are the barren bushes of the desert. But then there are those who trust in the Lord, who relish his ways and sink their roots into his resources. These are those who will bear fruit leading to eternal life.
Jesus Christ for his part offers a like choice through the words of St. Luke’s beatitudes (Lk6:20-26). Jesus sees the poor, the weeping, the hungry and the hated not as cursed but as blest. Their unhappy circumstances force them to turn to the Lord for support and consolation. Their choice is made for them. Only the Lord can soothe their unhappy situation. However, the rich, the fulfilled, the laughing and the esteemed are to be pitied because their jolly earthly circumstances forestall their turning to God to seek worth, consolation and fulfillment. Their blessings are their curse.
The Sacred Scriptures are clear. The believer daily is faced with the choice of finding his or her direction, strength, and consolation in the Word of God or in this world, in the sacred or in the secular, in the spirit or in the flesh. You decide!
