Warning that aims at our repentance
May 30, 2023 - Tuesday, 8th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalm 50:5-6, 7-8, 14 and 23
Unlike most Psalms, Psalm 50 is not addressed to God but is a warning from God. He speaks to those in Israel who offer sacrifices and profess God’s covenant, but at the same time disobey God’s commandment. The Lord is not going to tolerate such behaviour. To quote the famous statement of Samuel to Saul: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Sam 15:22).
The psalmist warns that such life heads for disaster. The Lord will not tolerate hypocrisy among his faithful. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!” (Ps 50:22). Those who only listen to God's words but do not act upon them are building sand castles. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it”(see Matt 7:26-27).
The psalmist presents God as the judge and we proclaim that Jesus Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. In Psalm 50, the Lord will testify against his people and in the parable of the Last Judgement, the glorious Christ comes to judge the nations of the world. Our earthly life is a time of decision that ends with death. Our Catechism teaches that “death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ” (CCC, 1021).
God’s warning in Psalm 50 aims at our repentance that can take place at any moment of life. Like the workers from the Lord’s vineyard who only work one hour, we can return to Christ at the last stage of our life. Or like the Good Thief, we can repent of our sins even at the moment of our death. But we should not delay that decision. The earlier we return to the Lord and live according to the values of the Gospel the more fruits of repentance we can produce.
Since its beginning Christianity was known as a religion of love and Christians were marked by the deeds of charity. For Saint Paul, charity surpasses any spiritual gifts (see 1 Cor 12:31) and the great Spanish mystic and Doctor of the Church, Saint John of the Cross said that “at the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love”. Let charity then be the mark of our lives and let the world knows that God himself is LOVE.