Psalm Reflection: The First Sunday of Advent (Cycle B)

“Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” - Psalm 80

AIM.

No not the targeting kind. I’m talking old-school A.I.M., as in AOL Instant Messenger, where I, Matt Zemanek, asked out my first official girlfriend in the 7th grade via my screenname studmuffin144. She said yes, and my youthful joy was almost immediately replaced by complete terror: 

What if she thinks that I am someone else? 

What if I have the wrong screenname and I asked out someone else? 

What if I got catfished?!?

You see, AIM was like texting on a computer before texting existed on phones. No images, no pictures, and real names were replaced by screen-names, like modern day Instagram handles. I realized that Friday night that I had absolutely no way to know if I had asked the right girl out, and if she had really said yes, until I showed up at school on Monday. I don’t even remember the rest of that weekend clearly, I think I blacked out from the looming dread of possible embarrassment. How do you even start that conversation with someone?: “I asked you out, right?” 

Come Monday morning, as I sheepishly walked toward her surrounded by her friends, she saw me and uttered the two words that saved me from all my fears: “Hi, boyfriend!”

I was saved! All was right with the world because I could see her face to face and all of my fears subsided.

We broke up one week later.

I feel like my worry was something the Jewish people experienced often in the time of the Old Testament. They could not see God face to face. All they had were distant rituals and sacrifices to communicate, and rarely was there something clear and definite spoken in return. In fact, even those that did hear back from God, like Moses, still could not see God face to face or they believed that they would die.

“The LORD answered: I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name, “LORD,” before you; I who show favor to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will. But you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” - Exodus 33:19-20

This is why the revelation of God in Jesus Christ means everything. We are truly saved for He is Emmanuel, (“God with us”), Jesus the Christ (“Yahweh saves, the anointed one”). Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead is the greatest news in history because God became flesh to set us free from sin and fear. We no longer need to worry, wonder or grasp for a distant God. God is present to us here and now in every moment by virtue of the Holy Spirit, His grace in the Sacraments, and His very body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. What must we do to receive the gift of His presence and salvation? We must repent, which literally means “to turn” as this week’s Psalm encourages us to do.

What in your life do you need to turn away from? 

What is clouding, distracting or preventing your gaze from being fixed on Jesus? 

How can you turn more toward Jesus in prayer and your everyday life this week?

The best act of repentance we have as Catholics is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If it has been a while, find a way to go, even if it is a drive-through or outdoor opportunity. We need it like we need oxygen, and like 7th grade me needed to know who the heck he was dating.

Know that I am praying for you, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

studmuffin144