Your Words, O God,
Are Spirit and Life
In the 1st reading on this 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, year C, the Israelites have just returned from their Babylonian exile to find Jerusalem destroyed. Ezra, the priest, gathers the shell-shocked community in prayer and tells them to stop weeping and start celebrating. Psalm 19 is a wonderful response to the 1st reading. The psalmist tells the assembly that the words they are hearing are spirit, life, true, favorable, and refreshing. All, including us, are invited to hear with new ears. We are called to remember God’s covenant relationship, to give thanks for the covenant, to rejoice in the ways God’s word enhances and orients our life, and to recognize the presence of God in nature, in others, in Scripture, in prayers. As we pray this psalm, let us ask ourselves what it means to place our hope and trust in all of God’s words and actions.
Your law, O God, is perfect, reviving the soul.
Your testimony is to be trusted, making the simple wise.
Your precepts are right, rejoicing the heart.
Your command is pure, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of God is holy, enduring forever.
God’s ordinances are true, and all of them just.
Let the word of my mouth, the thoughts of my heart,
be acceptable to our sight, O God, my rock and my redeemer.
[verses taken from People’s Companion to the Breviary © 1997 by the Carmelites of Indianapolis]