Rejoice and Be Glad

​A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 13th, 2024:
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 90

R. ​Fill us with your love, O Lord, that we may rejoice and be glad.

Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! 

R. ​Fill us with your love, O Lord, that we may rejoice and be glad.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. 

R. ​Fill us with your love, O Lord, that we may rejoice and be glad.

Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands. 

R. ​Fill us with your love, O Lord, that we may rejoice and be glad.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Am I the only one who reads this sort of scripture passage and feels as if God is somehow holding back His love and making me beg for it? This feeling is rooted in my sinfulness and in my wounded nature, and so I need to step back and root myself in what is true! It is true that God challenges me to reveal the depth of my love and desire for Him – not for His benefit but rather mine. 

This Psalm and, of course, all scripture calls us to open ourselves to receive the love that God desires to give each of us, the love that He freely gives, the love that He desires to give more than we could ever desire to receive it.

Is it possible to rejoice and be glad without God’s love? From a worldly perspective, the answer is yes. We can find a measure of love, peace, and happiness in material objects and in worldly relationships. I have in my life turned to amazon.com for happiness because who doesn’t get excited over the idea that a package is coming in the mail? Nevertheless, we know that the endorphin-induced emotional high that we experience in these situations is temporary. These feelings of well-being can never satisfy our long-term need for love, joy, peace, or whatever it is we’re searching for because they are imitations. 

In reality, the love that our body, mind and soul is searching for comes only from God – and when we experience that love, we begin to “rejoice and be glad” just as the psalmist expresses. The deeper I immerse myself in the love of God – into this miracle that God pours out even though I have done nothing to deserve it – the more I recognize that what I desire most exists in eternity and not in this life. All that I truly desire comes from God, but sin tries to convince me that this is not true, and so I must turn to the Lord and seek Him all the more!



​Sr. Teresa MacDonald​

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