Psalm Reflection: The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B

“Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!” - Psalm 90

When human beings were created by God, we were already filled with his love: we were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), who is love itself (1 John 4:8). Essentially, we are made in the image and likeness of love. However, when sin entered the world, suddenly we could empty ourselves of that love and replace it with lesser alternatives, or distorted versions of love. We could essentially become like food without flavor or fruit without its juice. Existing over the centuries without that inherent spiritual flavor left us lacking, wanting, and yearning for more. We were longing to become what we once were. That is why Jesus came: to free us of the cheap, earthly alternatives that get in the way of God’s love completely filling us and orienting our lives. God’s love became manifest in the power of the Holy Spirit re-descending upon humanity at Pentecost (Acts 2), restoring us to who we were created to be.

God is love. Love requires three tings: a lover, the beloved, and the love in between them. This is the Trinity. God the Father is the lover, pouring out His love in creative action, grace and abundance. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is the beloved. He showed us how to assume the perfect posture of receptivity and obedience to the Father’s love. The love between them is so strong and so perfect, it manifests in the third person of the blessed Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is love incarnate.

Just as a husband (lover) gives himself to his wife (the beloved), and that manifest in the creation of a brand new life (the love between them), so it is with our relationship with God. When we allow God to love us as His beloved, the fruits of the Holy Spirit manifest in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity, chastity, modesty and self-control. When the love of God fills us through the person of the Holy Spirit, that love overflows and pours out in the form of these fruits, and through new means of expression, like song.

Saint Augustine said, “He who sings prays twice.” When we sing in praise of God, we are praying both internally by having a posture of prayer, and externally through the bodily expression of song and praise. And there is something about music and signing that brings joy, when conversation cannot.

All of that being said, this weeks Psalm speaks to me as a reminder and an invitation to allow the Holy Spirit to manifest in our lives in powerful ways, so that the love of God would fill us, overflow, and pour out in the form of new expression, new gifts, new fruits, and new charisms. That is the invitation to each of us this week: a renewed personal Pentecost.

This week, in the privacy of your own car, the shower, or out in nature: sing your prayers. It does not have to sound good, but simply express your prayer in the joyful language of song. Sing and pray your heart out, and allow the loving presence of the Holy Spirit to animate and fill you through that prayer this week.

I am praying for you, please pray for me, and I will see you in the Eucharist.

Matt