In today's responsorial psalm (Psalm 1) we proclaim: "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord." Underlying our choice to live lives of righteousness, as stated in today's first reading, Romans 6: 19-23, is the hope, I believe, that we will become citizens of heaven. In Paul's words: "...now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Today's responsorial Psalm spells out the details of an individual who lives righteously, namely a person who:
- Does "not walk in the way of sinners"
- Does "not sit in the company of the insolent"
- "Delights in the law of the Lord"
- "Meditates on [God's] law day and night."
Such a person, the psalmist says,
- "Is like a tree planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.
- Is successful/prospers in "whatever he does"
- Is watched over by the Lord day and night!
The opposite is true of the wicked who live lives that are the direct opposite of the just. In other words
they:
- Walk the way of sinners
- Sit in the company of the insolent
- Do not delight in the law of the Lord
- Do not meditate on God's law day or night
- Are like vegetation in a desert
- Fail in whatever he does, though his failures might be deemed successes in the minds of those who follow their ways
- The ways of the wicked are scorned by the Lord but the Lord adds days, even years to their lives, hoping for their return to the ways of the Lord!
In which group do I see myself? you, yourself?
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