Jun
3
Psalm 90
June 3, 2008 |
Usually, when I’m reading the liturgical readings for the day, I’m gloss over the Responsorial Psalm in trying to get from the first reading to the gospel. But sometimes, the Psalm catches me and makes me pause. Today’s did just that.
This passage is from Psalm 90 -
Seventy is the sum of our years,
or eighty, if we are strong,
And most of them are fruitless toil,
for they pass quickly and we drift away.
Kind of depressing on the part of the psalmist, isn’t it.
But, when you really think about it - the psalmist is right. Generations come and go; our own lives speed up as we get older; very few of us are remembered in future centuries.
And, maybe that’s why our martyrs and our soldiers do what they do. They put it all on the line for a greater cause, be it God or country, because they realize our days “pass quickly and we drift away.”
Yesterday, we commemorated Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, today it’s St. Charles Lwanga and companions, Thursday it’s St. Boniface; and in the last two weeks of June, we commemorate St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. John the Baptist, St. Irenaeus, Sts. Peter & Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. All of these saints gave their lives in service to Christ.
They got Psalm 90. Do we?_____________________________________________
Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs (Uganda, 19th Century) - 22 Ugandas who converted from paganism; St. Charles was member of the royal court; protected royal pages from immoral requests of the king; king became convinced that St. Charles and the other Catholics were a threat to his rule and had them martyred; St. Charles was burned alive; canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
