28th Week in Ordinary Time (B) : Thursday 14th October 2021

Psalm 129 is one of the 6 Psalms known as the “Penitential Psalms”. In the Penitential Rite at Mass, we acknowledge our unworthiness to take part in Jesus’ eternal sacrifice. It still plays a significant part in our Liturgy because of the strong forgiveness, compassion, which the Lord offers with the coming of the dawn, a consoling symbol of the Resurrection.

Another phrase in the Psalm is the designation of God as “The God of my youth: This is not a nostalgic phrase thinking back to our younger days when our faith was perhaps firmer because more innocent. Instead, it is an expression of hope, affirming how God keeps renewing us each day until the day of eternal youth in the Resurrection.

In Roman 3:24-25, we are made known that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [but] are justified by God’s grace as a gift”.

So, we are justified, and we get right with God when we encounter our weakness and become aware of our natural inability to do anything to save ourselves from the incredible depths of fear and pain. (Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke15: 11-32). Then the Father’s Spirit prays in us, blesses us, and calms every anxiety in us.

But when we do not turn to God in Jesus and acknowledge our human vulnerability and primary weakness, we reject ourselves in Christ. It is more severe and deadly than any form of cancer, which can only kill what is temporal, while sin kills the human soul,

Thank You, Father, for reconciling us eternally with You in the gift of the Resurrection of Jesus.