Monday of Holy Week

Psalm 27, Monday of Holy Week

The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
When evildoers come at me
to devour my flesh,
My foes and my enemies
themselves stumble and fall.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation

The psalm today is one of the many places in Scripture where Jesus acknowledges the trials we face as Christians.  From the beginning of time, people who sought after God had to walk through fires in pursuit of Him.  It is no different today than it was in Old Testament times.  The enemy is still alive and present. He has simply modernized his efforts to thwart our path to Christ.  Instead of our foes being a neighboring tribe, they may be a family member with whom we have a disagreement or an unrelenting boss. He may use an addiction to drugs, alcohol, pornography, or seemingly less obvious foes such as social media. He may use depression or fear to take up the place in our hearts where only Jesus should be.  It is not a matter of if. At some point in our Christian walk, the psalmist tells us , evildoers WILL  come, war WILL be raged upon us.

But as the psalms do so well, this psalm brims with confidence and hope. “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear...Though war we waged upon me, even then will I trust. Wait for the Lord with courage!”  In each of our trials, the Lord wants to shelter us, to protect us and rescue us. We just have the difficult task of trusting Him. There truly is nothing to fear if we wait for the Lord to deliver us. While we wait, we can pray that wonderful prayer of St. Michael against evil. We can arm ourselves with the truth and comfort of Holy Scripture.  We can praise Him in our suffering, so that when we come out on the other side, we will know Him better. We can know that in every step of every trial, He is beside us, hurting with us, hoping with us, and ultimately, delivering us from all of our hardships.

This week is Holy Week. Like us, Jesus hurt. He waited for the war that was raged on Him to be finished. He waited on His Father to deliver Him from his pain. He endured torture, physical and the worst, that of being separated from His Father. He is no stranger to pain and empathizes with ours. On Easter Sunday, He was delivered, rescued, redeemed. If we courageously wait on Him, He will deliver us, rescue us, redeem us.