"Let your love be upon us, Lord, as we hope in you."
A moment ago, during the psalm and response, we, individually and corporately, spoke those words to God and to emphasize our conscious intent, we repeated them four times.
Some of you are asking, "What on earth is he talking about?"
Our communal response to the psalm is often like that. It passes our lips but does not quite reach the brain!
Well, we asked for God’s supporting love as we placed our hope in him... As we placed our hope in him. In other words in, what according to his divine wisdom, is best for us as well as for everyone and everything we touch.
It is about trusting God….trusting in the efficacy of divine love.
It is about "Thy will be done." Something else we repeat, as we ought to do, many times over.
Hoping in God is not simply about everything turning out OK.
It IS about being OK no matter how things turn out.
It is about trust in the loving God into whose hands we commend ourselves ...not so that every fortuitous event can be identified as a major or minor miracle detached from all human effort, save perhaps prayer.
Far from it! We trust in God to inspire us so that we approach every event and situation, and their possible consequences, as rational, responsible, well intentioned sons and daughters of our Father.
God has not been known for working around us. Generally he works through us but always within the context of a created universe, the nature of which is ultimately beyond our understanding.
We are blessed with the ability to know and to love. But I believe that we are only fully human when we dare to hope.
Clearly we have a significant role to play in the unfolding of history.
Saint Augustine expressed it this way: "Hope has two lovely daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage. Anger so that what must not be may not be. Courage so that what should be can be."
"Let your love be upon us, Lord, as we hope in you."
