St. Agnes
June 24/25, 2023
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062523.cfm
If the psalm prays, pray. If it laments, lament. If it rejoices, rejoice. If it hopes, hope. If it fears, fear. For everything which is written here is a reflection of us. St. Augustine.
There is one book of the Bible that we hear at almost every single mass, both on Sundays and at daily mass with the exception of only four days of the year [where we hear canticles]. It is the longest book of the Bible. Do you know what it is?
It’s the Book of Psalms. Today we heard Psalm 69 which we sung together, led by our cantor [name], in between our first and second reading. It’s sometimes easy to miss or forget that these songs are Scripture, just as much as the other readings and the Gospel.
When we approach the Bible, we may think of it primarily in terms of narrative stories, law codes and rule books, parables and proverbs, but Scripture is as much a hymnal as a history book. Songs and music are a part of nearly every book of the Bible—it’s not just the Book of Psalms.
We could think about the Bible as a kind Spotify playlist or if you are of an older generation a mix tape of songs. What’s interesting is that we might expect for all of those songs to happy or joyful praise music, giving thanks to God. There definitely are those songs to be sure. But there is a complete mix of genres and themes: love songs, break-up songs, war songs, party music, music for working, playing, and celebrating.
The
most common type of song is actually a lament. And we have two laments in our readings
today. Both the psalm (Psalm 69), and
our first reading which is a lament from the prophet Jeremiah. I want to focus for a minute on him.
Jeremiah lived in the 6th century before Christ and is sometimes called, “the weeping prophet.” He was sent by God to preach repentance to the people of Jerusalem alongside a warning that if they didn’t quickly change course that their kingdom would be destroyed and their leading citizens carried off into exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah quickly realizes that the people of Judah are rejecting both his message and God and that the terror that he most fears is really going to transpire. There is nothing he can do to prevent it. Not only is he, Jeremiah, rejected, but the leads have him beaten and put in stocks. Finally, he is thrown into an empty cistern to starve to death. He does not die there, but lives to see Jerusalem destroyed and the king killed.
The prophet becomes so associated with laments, that a style of them, “the jeremiad” is named for him. We do not get the beginning of the jeremiad in today’s readings, but I want to read it to you. It’s shocking and raw. Reflecting on his call as a prophet, Jeremiah cries to God,
You deceived me, LORD, and I let myself be deceived;
you were too strong for me, and you prevailed.
All day long I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage I proclaim;
The word of the LORD has brought me
reproach and derision all day long.
I say I will not mention him,
I will no longer speak in his name.
But then it is as if fire is burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding back,
I cannot!
You
might be surprised to read an attack on God like this in Scripture, right? Jeremiah laments that God every chose him to
be a prophet and that he can’t help but speak the words that God puts in his
heart. He sees God as his enemy in this
moment and he fully vents that anger to God.
If this lament were set to music, it might be death metal. It’s certainly not something we expect played
on a Christian radio station. Not on
“Positive and encouraging KLove.” It’s
important to remember that this rant against God is the Word of
God. There is something holy in
Jeremiah’s complaint, in his anger, in salvo at the Almighty. In fact, we hear no less than Jesus quote a
lament from Psalms as he died on the cross,
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” (Ps. 22:2). Jesus prays these words. He cries out these laments.
Benedictine sister Irene Nowell writes, “We have all been trained not to complain to God; it is unthinkable to shout at God in anger. This is where the laments come in. They give us the words we would never dare say ourselves. (Remember, the psalms are first of all the Word of God!)”
The message for us is this: there is no human emotion that we can’t bring to God. God wants us to give all of it to Him – the praise and joy as well as the anger and rage. There is no human experience that cannot be made holy. That cannot not be brought to the altar. In becoming human, lamented with us and for us.
Second, I would encourage you to pray the psalms. They are both the prayer book and the song book of the church. One of my great pleasures as a deacon is praying the liturgy of the hours, a traditional form of Catholic prayer in the morning and evening that are structured around the psalms. The hours have become more accessible in the last few years. I use an app called divineoffice.org to listen to a reading of the hours on my cell phone and also on my smart speaker. Of course, the psalms can be found in older technologies like a paper Bible, too.
Finally, I want to mention that laments in the Bible typically close with a message of hope and trust. After fully presenting the psalmists complaint to God, she concludes with a sung offering of praise and thanksgiving. That’s really the segment we heard in the first reading today.
In that spirit, I would like to share lyrics from one of my favorite Gospel songs called “His Eye is On the Sparrow” that I heard frequently when I was a parishioner in a Black Catholic parish. This song is inspired by Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel:
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without
your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than
many sparrows.
The song goes like this:
Let not your heart be troubled,”
His tender word I hear,
And resting on his goodness,
I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path he leadeth,
But one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me
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