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

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” - Psalm 34

Does this sound familiar? Probably because it was the Psalm for Sunday Mass just two weeks ago! What more can I say after only two weeks!

Well, in bringing these words to prayer again this week, I found myself reflecting on the book, The Soul of the Apostolate by J. B. Chautard. The entire book is about the relationship between our prayer and our actions, as the author puts it: the interior life and the active life. The author argues that, although both of these are important, the interior life is the one that is absolutely necessary and essential. It is like the heart, whereas the active life is like an arm. The heart beats and gives blood to the arm to allow it to move, just as our prayer life animates our actions. You could live without an arm, just as you could live without performing actions. However, you cannot live without a heart, just as we cannot live the Christian life without prayer. We must first be focused on receiving our Lord in prayer, because only then can we be capable of right action.

Have you heard the phrase, “garbage in, garbage out”? It can be applied to food, habits, beliefs, but it is usually associated with media and what we spend our time taking in. If we watch immoral content, we tend to be more prone to doing and saying immoral things. If we consume good, uplifting things, we tend to live and act more in accordance with what is right and good. So, if we want to “see the goodness of the Lord” in the world and in our own lives, we must first receive it, taste it, and take it in for ourselves. We do this primarily through receiving Jesus Christ in the intimacy of prayer and in the Eucharist, where we literally taste the goodness of God under the form of bread and wine. When we take in the grace and goodness of God, He can then pour more of Himself out to others through us. Grace and goodness in, grace and goodness out.

No matter how many souls the Lord desires to convert, save or affect through us, the very first soul each one of us must work to save is our own. We must give ourselves completely over to the Lord, to receive all He is giving us, and allow Him to change us from the inside out. Only then can we discern where the Lord is calling us, who He is calling us to be, or what He is calling us to do.

You may be in a time of discernment, confusion or searching right now. Impatience may be building up because you are so focused on action or inaction in your life that you may be neglecting the place where true transformation awaits: your own interior life. Regardless of where you with the Lord right now, I encourage you to prayerfully reflect on how much time you are intentionally spending with Him, and where you might need to improve, make a change, or more deeply commit in your relationship with Him. Take some time to look at what you spend time watching or consuming and honestly ask if it is producing good fruit in your life or not. We cannot see the goodness of the Lord if all that we are tasting and taking in is sour, inferior or corrupted. 

Garbage in, garbage out.

Grace and goodness in, grace and goodness out.

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

Matt