Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me!” This intense pleading from the LORD, found in the first reading from Micah, is gut-wrenching. This text is used on Good Friday of Holy Week as we venerate the cross with a kiss. In the monastery, these reproaches are sung with three-part harmony and are my favorite piece of music we sing throughout the year. The harmonies have dissonance and tension during the accusation, followed by quiet resolution at the end. The way I have always felt these reproaches was that of a father who is angry, but because he loves us so deeply and desires our turning away from evil and into his love. Throughout our lives, we can fall away from the LORD and slip into sin, sometimes quietly, subtly, and without notice, but let us be ever mindful of the voice of our Father’s pleading for us to return. Let us try to answer His question of “What have I done to you?” Let us see the many graces we have been given and not look to some sign to be given, as the people in the Gospel ask for, but rather look to the signs and graces already given to us and are before our very eyes. Let us look to Jesus, our beloved, and see all that the Father has given us in His Son, who died for our sinfulness so that we might have life in Him.
Reflection by Br. Placid Dale, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections