I was praying yesterday for a young
man who is seriously depressed to the point of being suicidal. Perhaps you
would pray for him as well. I resolved to offer my Mass for him last night (we
have daily Masses at 5:15 pm), and the first reading was from Job. Job was
seriously depressed, not to the point of suicide, but to the point where he was
lamenting the day he was born:
“Perish the day on which I was born, the
night when they said, ‘The child is a boy!’ Why did I not perish at birth, come
forth from the womb and expire? Or why was I not buried away like an untimely
birth, like babes that have never seen the light? wherefore did the knees
receive me? or why did I suck at the breasts? For then I should have lain down
and been tranquil; had I slept, I should then have been at rest.” (Job 3:1-3)
The appropriateness of this reading in light of what I held
in my heart in prayer was uncanny. Once again, as it has so often, the
scriptures for Mass have resonated with the concerns and prayers I had brought
to the Mass.
Once again I was reminded that the Scriptures, all of the
Scriptures, are about life—not about life in general, but actually about our
lives in the here and now. And when those times come where we find the
scriptures do not speak directly to us, well we should still immerse ourselves
into the texts and pray for those in the world for whom those words may be
relevant and true on any given day. And so, as that text was proclaimed, I
united it to the suffering heart of the man I was praying for.
This happens a lot when we pray the psalms in the Monastic
Office. The psalms are a poetic expression of our human emotions, and on any
given day a psalm may speak not directly to we who are praying it, but it still
does speak to and about people for who those words may be relevant and true, as
I have said above.
This is true in so many cases. Oftentimes a psalm laments
the poor state of someone who has been falsely accused in court of a crime he
has not committed; consider all those who find themselves in such a condition
and pray with them and for them; remember also that Our Lord Jesus Christ knows
full well, through experience, what it is like to be falsely accused of
something, even to the point where he receives a death sentence.
Sometimes the psalm expresses the pain of one who finds himself
pressed in on every side from violent enemies. Consider the pain of all of
those who are serving and suffering on battlefields throughout the world.
Sometimes the psalm is a great praise for blessings and
gifts received, but on one particular day, we may not feel that way.
Nonetheless, rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and also consider the
realities in our own lives which are actual reasons for rejoicing even though
on a particular day we may not feel like we are “an alleluia from head to foot,”
to borrow one of St. Augustine’s favorite phrases.
Meanwhile, I pray for those who cannot pray for themselves.
I encourage you to do that same thing.
God bless you!
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