Healing in Blessing

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, September 17th, 2023:
Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 103

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

It is the Lord who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.

R. The Lord is merciful and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

I love the way that today’s Psalm fits in with the other readings. The Gospel for this weekend tells the story of a man whose debts are forgiven, but he refuses to forgive the one who owes him in turn. When we see that forgiven man, we can ask, “Why was his heart unchanged by the mercy he was shown? How can he dole out such a different portion than the one he has freely received?” I see the answer in today’s Psalm: the antidote to bitterness is blessing. 

Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is in me, bless His holy name. 

Blessing the Lord reminds me of a season several years ago when I was struggling and broken-hearted over a loss I had experienced. At that time, I went to a conference and the song we sang over and over was, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul; worship His holy name!” The song awoke in me the longing to lean into praise and blessing God, who was still good, still awe-inspiring and majestic, and still had a plan for my life. 

Even as I was struggling with my loss, and my broken heart wanted to turn inward to protect itself, I found healing in the freedom of that praise. This was surprising to me at the time! But it was in that expansive movement of praise and gratitude (rather than the closed-in movement of supposed “self-protection”) that I began to be able to breathe deeply again and regain joy. Praising God for who He is and what He has done is one of the truest, most human things we can do. No matter what challenges or suffering plague a certain moment of your life, it is always true that He is God and we are not. And that is such good news, because He is also good and has the power to bring healing and light into the most difficult situations. 

Imagine if the man in this weekend's Gospel had turned to blessing the Lord in gratitude for the unmerited forgiveness he received before he met the man who was his debtor. Blessing can reorient our hearts in the direction of truth and save us from many trials. 

How are you being called to bless the Lord today?




Sr. Angela Burnham

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