The Lord takes delight in his people.
June 2, 2023 - Friday, 8th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
The image of God that many of us have is a strict disciplinarian that is more concerned with our sins than with our well-being. But that is a caricature of god. The main message of our faith is that God is love (1 John 4:8) and the psalmist today tells us that God loves his people (see Ps 149:4).
We talk about God’s love as unconditional love, love that does not need to be earned. This metaphor for that love is the relationship between parents and children. Prophet Isaiah compares God’s love to the love of a mother for her child (Is 49:15) and Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son to a father for his sons (Luke 15:11:32). Children do not have to earn the love of their parents - they are loved for the simple fact that they are their children. In the book of Jeremiah, we hear this beautiful statement coming from God: “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3).
What happens when we messed up our lives? Does God still love us? The Psalmist who states that God delights in his people was aware that God’s people were not perfect. He knew the history of salvation that reveals our tendency to stray away from God’s way. And yet this fact does not nullify God’s love for us. This truth is confirmed by Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners and by his statement that he came to call the sinners to righteousness (see Mark 2:13-17). God’s love aims to transform us from sinners to saints.
It is this message of Christianity about God’s unconditional love for us that draws so many people to Christ. We are like those tax collectors and sinners who loved to come to Jesus and listen to his stories about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. We know that we have messed up our lives, misbehaved, and often ended up in the wrong place. Some of us think that all is lost and we can never get out of that mess. Then we hear about Jesus who loves and gave himself for us and hope warms our hearts. Then some of us utter a prayer: “Lord, if it is true, please come to my life and change me into the person you want me to be”.
There is one particular statement of Saint Paul that always surprises me: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:10). Has anybody ever told you that you are God’s masterpiece? At the beginning of the Bible, we read that God created us in his image and likeness and it made him very happy. But then, we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (see Rom 3:23), so God created us anew in Christ. Moreover, as we continue to read Saint Paul, we hear that God has even prepared for us the good things we should do: God created us anew in Christ “so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Eph 2:10). That is how much God loves us, how much He delights in us.