Hearts Restored to the Lord

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, March 17th, 2024:
Fifth Sunday of Lent

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Psalm 51 
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R. Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 

R. Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 

R. Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 

R. Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

​What is true contrition? If you were raised going to Sunday School or you have a good recollection of your catechism, you may have a good answer ready. In the Catechism, we find the Church’s wisdom, which opens the concept up beautifully by discussing the different kinds and characteristics of contrition. This gives us a beautiful, concise definition of contrition. But in today’s psalm, we get an embodied picture of what contrition looks and feels like in the heart of a sinner. The psalmist today pours his heart out, and if you’ll enter into this text with me, I think we can marvel together at the beautiful picture he paints of God creating a clean heart.

The first strophe begins with the familiar and honest plea “Have mercy on me, God, in your steadfast love… cleanse me of my sins.” These opening lines remind us of the contrite sinner in the Gospel who went before God in the temple, begging for mercy for the sins for which he knew he was guilty. Contrition begins with this honest, humble recognition: the Lord is full of steadfast love, and I have missed the mark, neglecting to receive or give His love in many, many ways. I need to be healed, washed clean. The first few lines of the psalm open our minds and hearts to the truth that we are human and we have sinned. It’s the liberating and poignant truth that Saint Catherine of Siena heard from the Lord Himself when He said to her, “I am God, and you are not.”

As the second strophe opens, it carries on the theme from the first, recognizing the need for mercy. But there is a slight shift, asking not only to be forgiven, but to be made totally new, even to be given a new heart: “Put a new and right spirit within me, O God.” I find the following two lines particularly touching, as the psalmist follows up this request with the real heartbeat of this prayer and of every prayer: that we never, ever be separated from His spirit and His presence. Isn’t this why we make contrition in the first place? Contrition does not begin and end with our shortcomings. It is about recognizing that what we really want is to remain in the Heart of the Lord. It means returning home! 

The third and final strophe encapsulates contrition so well. It expresses that need for mercy, and specifically the psalmist’s desire to be restored to the Lord, and then in the final lines it leaps outward in an evangelical spirit of zeal to bring others to restoration in Him. He says that after he has been restored to joy in His salvation, he “will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.” This is what happens when true contrition moves our hearts. We are able to be on our knees in front of the Lord, begging for His mercy, expressing that we are willing to be deeply changed, that we desire to be restored to closeness with Him, and finally to bring all others along with us. 




Sister Angela Burnham

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