Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - May 1, 2021
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
"Why all this praising of God in hymns and prayers? We’re not telling God anything God doesn't know." That was the complaint of a recent convert to Christianity. Another, after hearing the hymn "How Great Thou Art" said: "Why tell God how great God is? He knows that." Those of us who willingly worship and sing and pray such phrases may take all this for granted. For some, it is a problem.
My immediate response is that I praise and thank God for life itself, for my existence, first of all. After that, for the life, death and resurrection of the Lord which give me so much hope amid all the horrors of earthly existence. We hope, additionally, that most of us have family and friends whose love is such a gift! To thank and praise God presumes we do not take all this for granted, that we know it is unearned, no matter how mediated through our parents, biology and friends. Something we have not ourselves produced.
Think of how, as little children, our parents had to educate us to gratitude. They said repeatedly: "Now what do you say?" It’s doubtful that little children spend their break at day care speculating about where it all came from, and from whom. While self-evident to many, the necessity of praising and thanking God likewise has to be learned by reflection and a certain amount of experience. Without these, it is possible for some to say to themselves: life, existence; it's just here.
Truly, God does not need this our praise. We need it; we need it as the appropriate response to our recognition that we, that life, all this is gift. The alternative is simply that consciously or not we believe we are owed all this or that we ourselves produced it. Further, without praise from us for God, we risk becoming even more self-centered and self-indulgent. If God is not the center of our universe, who is? The other big contender is inevitably "me".
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!”
