4th Sunday of Lent
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Written by Allyson Gary
Way back in 2015, I was in a production of Godspell at my local theater. In the second act, there’s a song called “On the Willows,” that directly references this week’s Psalm. “But how can we sing? Sing the Lord's songs? In a foreign land?” I remember sitting on the stage, harmonizing as my friend who played Judas Iscariot, improvised a short reflection on this verse every night of our production.
One night, he mentioned how we are all strangers in a foreign land because we are meant for Heaven and we were made to worship. I felt a knot inside me ease a bit. Had other people felt this way, too? A warmth filled me that night as I realized that feeling of displacement that always had me looking elsewhere for fulfillment was not a flaw of my personality, but a shared yearning for something greater than myself. And that this feeling was not unique to the twenty-first century, but a deep-seated human urge that stretched across the centuries.
This is why the Psalms are such a gift to us. There are over one hundred of these songs in the Bible. It’s important for us to remember that we don’t have to strive to find the right words to explain to God how we’re feeling, because they have been provided to us, free of charge, in ways that are more eloquent and beautiful than most of us could ever dream.
We are not alone in this world. We are all, past and present and future, connected by the words of the Psalmists. The words Jesus memorized as a child are the same words we read today. The words the saints read in their study of the Scriptures are the same words we pray with today. The words you hear in Mass will be the same words your great grandchildren will hear in their own time.
So, what line in today’s Psalm is one you think will resonate with your descendants long after you’re gone?
Allyson Gary is a writer and podcaster based in Southern Louisiana. She is the host of Memento Mori: The Podcast, available on Spotify, where she talks about everyone’s favorite topics: death and grief. Follow her show on Instagram @themementomoripod and be sure to send her lots of compliments because she can only function with a near constant stream of people reassuring her that they still like her and have not decided to hate her in the three minutes since she last asked.
Pray with today’s psalm.