Psalm Reflection: The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

“Praise the Lord, my soul!” - Psalm 146

We are a body and a soul. These two parts of us form a whole person. The body has no life without the soul. But what is the soul? And where is the soul?

Consider this question: If your body were a peach, what part would your soul be?

The first and most common answer when I ask that question is usually the pit. But in fact, our soul is not locked away, hidden in the center of who we are. If your body were a peach, your soul would actually be the juice. The juice gives flavor to the peach and is present in every part of it in the same way that our soul is present in every single cell of our bodies.

So, if our soul is in our entire body, animating us and giving us life at every moment, what does it mean to praise the Lord with our soul? 

It means that praising God is not an internal thing that we do, quietly in our own minds that stays hidden, locked away, secret or invisible. If we are authentically praising God in the way that He designed us, it will be visibly expressed in our words, actions, and in the way we use our bodies to glorify and serve Him. Our prayer life is sometimes called the interior life, but it is only referred to as such in order to distinguish it from the external world and our actions. However, an interior life that makes nothing different about us is not an interior life at all. Prayer animates the Christian life in the same way that our soul animates our bodies. Without it, we die.

So, how are you glorifying God with your life, particularly with your body? Are you being a good steward of the life and the body that God has given you? Are you getting enough sleep, going to the doctor, eating well and exercising? Or are you allowing your body to become neglected, or the victim of a fast-paced lifestyle & routine you have fallen into? God created us in His image and likeness, and so we either serve as a witness to that fact, or we get in the way of it by distorting His image and likeness with vices and bad habits.

Beyond taking care of ourselves physically, this Psalm is an invitation to ask whether our spiritual lives are bearing fruit in tangible ways. Would people who interact with you on a normal day be able to tell you were a person of faith without you telling them? 

Lastly, when you pray and when you are at Mass, how is your soul praising the Lord? Do you engage bodily in worship, saying the responses, singing the songs, placing yourself in a prayerful posture and mindset? Are you smiling? The God of the universe loved you enough to come down, live and die for you, and give you a perpetual reminder of His love in the Eucharist! Should we not at the very least be smiling?

So, this week, reflect on how you glorify God with your body in how you care for yourself, how you let your inner life seep into your actions and words, and how your prayer is expressed both internally and externally. Remember, no where in Scripture does it say, “praise the Lord, my quiet, nonchalant, laziness.” No. Praise the Lord, my soul!

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

Matt