Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.

In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me;

you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name.

Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage.

You set a table before me as my enemies watch; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Only goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.

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The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack;

To be a child, under the guidance and care of a parent, is one of the most carefree times of life. Have you ever watched children at play? What is the one thing that grabs you instantly? They are absorbed in their games. Not a care in the world. Time is not measured by the clock. There is no time when one is young, unless one’s birthday or Christmas is two weeks or so away … then time takes on agonizing meaning. We are all sheep of Jesus the Good Shepherd. If we reflect on his tender, watchful care … he even speaks of the good shepherd searching out the lost sheep in one of his parables … we can rest secure. There is nothing that we lack as his sheep. He provides protection, sustenance, and a never-ending love to call us back and search us out if we sin.

Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage.

Dark valleys are part of everyone’s life. St. Therese of Lisieux had doubts about God’s existence near the end of her life. She said she knew the sun was there, but the clouds of her doubts obscured the sun. St. John of the Cross, imprisoned by his fellow monks in a small, dark cell for months, wrote the poems that became the basis of his “Dark Night of the Soul.” The martyrs agonized over their impending executions, not to mention the fear they endured about the future of their children or spouses. St. Thomas More was imprisoned and executed by Henry VIII for his fidelity to the Church. His letters to his wife and daughters are worth reading as he correctly judged his eventual fate. The list goes on and on of saints who, though loved most specially by the Bridegroom, had to experience the dark valley. Yet no matter what life brings, the Beloved is there holding our hand. Like a mother who calms her child’s fears, Jesus holds our face in his pierced hands and looks into our eyes with an eternal love. He weeps with us in our pain, as he did for Lazarus. The temptation to despair can be the gateway to unending consolation if we gaze back into those divine eyes and say: “I trust in you to bring me out of this dark valley.” The Hindus utter mantras to bring the divine into their consciousness. As Christians, we can practice many mantras of love and trust in Jesus. Men, especially, should verbalize these expressions of unfailing trust and love. I have seen the most self-confident of men act like frightened children when they are thrust into unpleasant and uncontrollable circumstances. We are all children, really, no matter our social rank, our financial status, or our macho personalities. “Unless you become as a little child …” was, I think, meant especially for the strongest and most powerful among us.

You set a table before me as my enemies watch. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Kings and priests are anointed with oil. For kings, a royal feast is prepared, with an abundance of wine, for the newly crowned ruler. No matter our sex, we are a royal priesthood. In 1 Peter 2:9 the author reassures us: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We are that royal priesthood. God cannot wait reverently to anoint us as his chosen people. I remember saying to my choir once that as members of the choir we were doing priestly work, spreading the good news of salvation to the congregation in song. They would remind me of that from time to time. It had shed new importance on their vocation of praise. Jesus, the high priest, has through baptism and confirmation anointed us as priests to offer the sacrifice of the Mass with him … to concelebrate the eternal act of reconciliation with him … to become one with him as we partake of the Eucharistic feast. The chalice of that sacrifice is the overflowing cup of love the High Priest has for each of us.

Only goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.

When a young man loves a woman, he pursues her with phone calls, flowers, candy, cards … I have told my daughters, if your “dream guy” doesn’t call you for weeks, he’s not serious. Dump him. As the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta advises: “There are plenty of fish in the sea …” Get over him. Move on. The Lord has someone else in mind for you. Well, there is no doubt that God pursues us with the ardor of a lover. His goodness and tenderness are the most intimate imaginable. If courtship with humans is wonderful, it is but a foretaste of the courtship the Redeemer of the world initiates with each of us. The payoff? Dwelling with the God of unspeakable love, in his home, forever. How long is forever? God created the physical universe with the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. What’s a billion years? Over 14 million lifetimes for the average person. If one lives to a hundred, that’s rare. But to live forever in the house of God. 13.7 billion years of patient waiting on the part of our Creator for our birth. All the cosmic explosions, all the billions of galaxies with their hundreds of billion stars … all of that had to take place before you and I were born. This God of ours would do it all over again just for you or me.

I don’t know about you, but I get impatient if things don’t happen yesterday. God’s yesterdays never had a beginning. Like 1 + 1 = 2, He had to always exist. But here’s the unbelievable part … he is giving us a future that is as long as he has existed. No end. Add a billion years and we haven’t even begun. Add a billion billion years … still no change in the clocks of eternity. Don’t think God loves us? Think again. The price we pay on earth for the reward that’s in store for us … why be anything less than faithful to him?