Let us go today

The psalmist in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today proclaims “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ (Psalm122:1) This action happens now, in the present. We can be distracted, as Diane Jorgensen of Creighton University comments, by the dreams of the great changes we wish and pray for in society sometime in the future. The action of Love today can fall victim to procrastination because of the good things we dream of for tomorrow. Friar Jude Winkler sees the time of tribulation described by Isaiah which is suffered in the present by the people of Jerusalem, who endure defeat and subjugation by the foreign invaders, as a time for purification and an opportunity to wipe away the guilt of the sinfulness which is responsible for their distress. The trust of the Centurion in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus is the healing for his servant, now, despite his unworthiness as a pagan soldier of occupation to request help from the God of Israel, is evidence to Jesus of great faith. Now is the time and today we need to join the psalmist in journey to the House of the Lord. As we move, we will encounter opportunities to be Love in action today.