Today’s Responsorial Psalm 51 is prayed every Friday at Morning Prayer. It is one of my favorite psalms. The third stanza from today’s reading captures a profound aspect of our relationship with God: A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
“Steadfast” is an important biblical idea. In fact, the term “steadfast love” is found in the Bible some 200 times, depending on what translations you are using. It is best summed up in the word hesed, a Hebrew word not easily translated into English. It speaks of tender mercy, profound feeling, an unceasing, unwavering love. Our prophet today, Hosea, is one prophet who speaks eloquently about this special covenant God made with the people of Israel and with each one of us. Hosea uses his marriage as an analogy for God’s profound expression of love. We celebrate this relationship, this covenant, at every Mass; God’s love is mostly dramatically shown in Jesus laying down his life for his friends.
At each Mass and in our prayer, we are invited to place our spirits – often fledgling – on the altar for renewal and transformation. We remember God’s tender love, God’s own steadfast spirit, that we too may have a steadfast spirit, a tender love. For as Jesus warns us in today’s Gospel, we are sent forth to navigate a world full of wolves caught up in competition, malicious lying, bullying, getting ahead, the almighty dollar, having the perfect body, all at the expense of the lowly, the widow, the outcast, the marginalized, the orphan (14:3), and our Mother Earth.
May God’s steadfast love overflow within us today so that our own steadfast spirit is renewed. And may those we meet today see in us that hesed God has made with us.
Let Us Pray:
O God, be like the dew for each of us, that we will blossom like the lily in mercy, compassion, tender love and faithfulness. Create in us clean hearts and steadfast spirits. Amen.