Psalm Reflection: The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

“Remember your mercies, O Lord.” - Psalms 25

Elephants never forget.

Elephants have incredibly large brains, and the portion of their brain responsible for memory, the temporal lobe, is more developed with a higher density of folds. During dangerous droughts, elephants can recall the locations of watering holes or other spots essential to survival over hundreds of kilometers away by memory alone. Though they may not remember everything, they have an impressive ability to remember things that even humans would be unable to recall.

What about God? Does God forget?

It would seem that the Psalmist in this Sundays Responsorial Psalm is implying so, because we are compelling God to remember His mercies, as if He has forgotten them.

I mean, the universe is a very complex system, measuring unfathomable distances, and it is all being balanced into existent by incredibly precise laws and forces of nature. It is a lot of work, so maybe there is simply too much going on for God to have room in His memory for everything?

No.

God can handle it effortlessly.

God has an infinite amount of memory available.

God does not forget.

Psalms says “Great is our Lord, vast in power, with wisdom beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5). We describe this power of God in three words, that He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.

He is omnipotent, meaning all-powerful,

He is omnipresent, always here with us, and

He is omniscient, meaning all-knowing.

There is not a thing that occurs in the universe that goes unnoticed by Him. 

There is no place in the universe He is not present and willing into existence.

There is no force or entity so overpowering or massive that God cannot hold it in the palm of His hand.

He got this.

So, why do we compel God to remember if He cannot forget?

The word remember literally means to “call to mind.” This does not imply that God forgets, but it is a request for a thought to be at the forefront of His mind to lead to some sort of action. 

When we are asking God to call to mind His mercy, it is not because God forgot that He was merciful. We are asking God to do this because we need God to act in a merciful way. Asking for God’s mercy implies we recognize our need for it.

God will not override our free will because He loves us. Love requires the freedom to choose, so He respects our choices and will not force Himself where He is not welcome or invited. When we sin, we break ourselves away from the Lord and we create a barrier between us and Him. We need to be the ones to give God permission to break through those barriers, that is one of the reasons why we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

When we are asking God to call to mind His mercy, it is because we putting ourselves in a position to receive it. We are asking God to act in our lives and giving permission to do so. 

God is unlimited in His ability and willingness to forgive us. 

He limits Himself by letting us choose whether or not we want that forgiveness.

In the Bible, every time the people of God ask Him to remember His covenant, His mercy, or His faithfulness, it is because they are recognizing their sins and asking God for deliverance.

When was the last time you admitted you made a mistake?

When was the last time you said you were sorry?

When was the last time you made a real, honest confession?

We need God’s mercy. The second we think we can continue taking this journey of faith on our own through our own virtue or good habits, that is when we are most in trouble.

So, when the Psalmist proclaims “remember your mercies, O Lord,” this Sunday, we should hear, “help me remember how much I need your mercies, O Lord.”

Romans 5:8 puts it beautifully: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

We cannot do it for ourselves. 

We will always need help.

We will always need Jesus.

Let us stop pretending otherwise.

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

Matt

This reflection is based on the Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday, October 1st, 2023, which is The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A: Psalms 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.