Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - August 19, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
Weekday Mass in most parishes is pretty low-keyed and predictable. While there might be some music, the general tone is rather quiet and contemplative. Very often the same people are there day after day. In a big city one inevitably has the experience of that familiarity being disrupted by a homeless person, a disoriented or mentally troubled street person. He or she comes in and talks to the nearest person somewhat unintelligibly, kneels, sits or stands, usually at other times than the regulars. Those nearby will try to be calm. Whether one sees such people on the streets or in the more unusual setting of weekday Mass, they seem, of course, so out of place.
The streets on a weekday are full of people busily moving about on errands connected with commerce, with making money. The street people, the homeless or simply those who do not, will not fit into ordinary society. They suggest for one thing that we need to give persons time and attention in our world. One can't help thinking how their lives might have been different if someone had paid more attention, given more time. The fact of God's love for every human being is made real here and now by some Tom, Dick or Mary. The people who drift in and out of our world with apparently no anchor are reminders of the great value there is in loving attention to another human being.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
