Psalm Reflection: The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B

"I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.” - Psalms 30

It is a miracle that I am still alive.

I have narrowly escaped some pretty horrifying, life-threatening situations in my life. 

I have been in the car for at least five car accidents.

I have sustained several head injuries and concussions.

I have had endured attacks or had close encounters with several deadly wild animals, including mountain lions, bears, sharks, and rattlesnakes. 

I have had knives and guns pulled on me and somehow escaped with minimal injuries. 

And most of these happened before I even turned 18.

My guardian angel was working overtime for most of my young life. 

Thankfully, in nearly all of these situations, I walked away on my own mostly unscathed, and with no permanent or long-lasting injuries.

However, there were a few times when I needed to be rescued.

When I was around five years old, I was floating on a large pool toy in a housing community of a family friend. Somehow, I lost my balance and the pool toy flipped over with me on it. I found myself upside down in the water, not really able to swim well, and unsure of what to do. Before I even had a chance to react, my dad was pulling me out of the water.

When I was around ten years old I was sitting on the front deck at my next-door neighbor’s house. My legs were hanging through the vertical rungs of the deck that supported the railing. I squeezed my head between the two rungs in front of me, and then realized I could not get my head back out. My friends went to get help as I was left looking trapped in a medieval stockade. My neighbor had to cut a rung off of his own deck to get me out.

When I was twelve, my sister and I had made a rope swing in the middle of the forest that swung out over a hill of ivy with a mountaintop view Southern California below. We played there all summer and had worn down the seat on the swing to the point that it broke off. I had the brilliant idea to tie a loop in the bottom of the rope to put a foot in and continue to use the swing. In my first attempt to use the loop, I swung forward off of the platform we made, and did not swing far enough back to jump off. When I attempted to adjust my grip, my leg slipped through the loop and tightened around my thigh, suspending me over the hill. My sister and her friend were with me and, in a painful panic, I sent them to run home and get scissors to cut me out. They ran home, and decided to eat lunch for an entire thirty minutes while I was left hanging in the middle of the forest before they came and cut me loose. They still bring up rope burns as an inside joke at my expense today. 

My dad, my neighbor, and my dawdling sister all rescued me from situations that I could not get myself out of, and would have otherwise led to serious injury or death. The Psalm for this Sunday reminds us that we cannot save ourselves, and that is what compels us to give thanks and worship God for all He has done for us: “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.”

We cannot earn God’s love or the gift of salvation. No matter how often we attend Mass, how many rosaries or novenas we pray, or how much money we donate, it will make no difference. The only way we can be saved is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We receive the gift of salvation He won for us through the Sacrament of Baptism, and then we must live in response to it. We can do good works to live out our faith and grow in righteousness, but the gift of salvation is exactly that: a gift.

So, brothers and sisters, do you recognize the gift you have received?

You and I were on a one-way train to Hell because of our sin and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it, so God, in His infinite mercy, came and rescued us. You have truly and literally been saved.

Every time we go to Mass we are not there to be entertained or to make friends, though community is important. Instead, we are there to worship the God of the universe who has saved us and offers us spiritual food to sustain us as we strive to live faithfully in response to that free gift.

Without Jesus, you and I are left hanging in the forest like wounded gazelles bound by the ropes of our sins. There is no hope without Jesus, and He gave everything to rescue and restore you. 

What are you giving back to Him?

How is your life a response to that gift?

Where can you grow in gratitude for all that Jesus has done for you?

It should never be lost on us the profound magnitude of what Jesus did for us; it should be something that deeply affects us every single day.

Never forget what Jesus has done for you. He has rescued you.

He reached down from on high and seized me;

drew me out of the deep waters.

He rescued me from my mighty enemy,

from foes too powerful for me.

They attacked me on my day of distress,

but the LORD was my support.

He set me free in the open;

he rescued me because he loves me.

- Psalms 18:17-20

He continues to rescue you every single day.

“We had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death, that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He rescued us from such great danger of death, and he will continue to rescue us; in him we have put our hope [that] he will also rescue us again…” - 2 Corinthians 1:9-10

Do not forget or neglect the gift you have received.

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, June 30th, 2024, which is the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B: Psalms 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13.