Psalm 118:19-29: Open the Gates
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Open the gates of victory; I will enter and thank the Lord.
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Today we are reminded that we labor in vain if the Lord himself does not build the house in which we shelter. (Psalm 127:1) If our relationships – personal and professional – are based on fear rather than truth, all our efforts are futile. If our goals – individual and collective – aim at preservation of self rather than the common good, all of our secrets hide nothing. If our strategies – emotional and spiritual – rely on anything but God, we are doomed. We have failed to open the gates; we have failed to thank the Lord; our house is built in vain.
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Catherine of Siena knows about the building of houses and the strength it takes to endure tribulation while we work. She reminds us that as we allow God to build with us, we will be ridiculed and even scorned. In today’s MAGNIFICAT Meditation of the Day Catherine gives us a view of how the divine builder operates; she gives us a window to open that pierces our own darkness with the light of God: I give and permit everything out of love, and they are constantly scandalized in me. Yet I patiently endure and put up with them because I loved them without their having loved me. They are always harassing me with impatience, hatred, complaints, and with all sorts of infidelity. They want to set themselves up to investigate with their own blind sight and opinion of my hidden judgments, which are all made justly and lovingly. They don’t yet know themselves, and so they see falsely. For those who do not know themselves cannot know me or my judgments in truth. (Cameron 33)
We are often frustrated by the idiocy of ourselves and others. We do not understand why or how God allows falsehood and deception to take hold in our hearts. We see God’s world as an imperfect place and we watch as cornerstones are rebuffed; doors and windows close tightly; hidden judgments and injustice overpower goodness and right. We become discouraged when we believe that we have labored in vain and yet it is precisely when the obstacles are the greatest that we best see God at work.
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If we become disheartened by our tribulations we have forgotten what God has told us – that we die to be born, that the lowly are exalted, that the meek reign and the humble rise. We become perfect in our efforts to love eternally as God loves. We build strong houses when we build them through and in the Lord. We let in God’s mercy and justice when we open the gates of our hearts.
Open the gates of victory; I will enter and thank the Lord.
Cameron, Peter John. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 1.12 (2012): 33. Print.
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