The Lord hears the cry of the poor

Psalm 34: 2-3, 17-18, 19, 23

Refrain: The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth.
Let me soul glory in the Lord; the lowly will hear me and be glad.

The Lord confronts the evil doers, to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The Lord redeems the lives of his servants; no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.

The pilgrimage that is our journey through this life is a challenging one but also full of much gift. Pilgrimages are always more challenging than mere trips. Pilgrims are on a mission and their mission involves drawing near to God. Drawing near to God means estranging ourselves to all the lies and deceptions that are not of God. Unfortunately so much of modern society is founded on established lies and deceptions that have just become accepted over time. So many in the first world have been wounded in ways that believing we should look out for "number one" first at all costs seems like a truth. We believe we are "entitled" to have everything we want, and that there are no negative consequences to our appetites for more and more "stuff." We believe it is some constitutional right to "have it our way."

Now, please, I am not suggesting that we should not take care of ourselves, nor that we shouldn't enjoy nice things. It is all in how we approach things and how we are attached. We need to remember that "our ways" are not always "God's ways" and that God's ways are really what we should be seeking because the only desire of the heart of God is for the good for all of us. God desires union with us in a unfurled passionate way. Have you ever stepped out into a beautiful day and looked up at the sky and looked around at the beauty of nature and just felt one with everything?  Didn't you feel as though you were intimately part of all that is in some wonder-ful way? Didn't breathing feel different? Those moments of deep awakening when we feel "connected" are wonderful, but the truth is, we are no less joined to all creation (and hence to the Creator) when we are unaware of the gift, like on a gray winter day when the windchill is minus ten.

I am again not diminishing the challenge of the bumps on the road; for my road hasn't exactly been smooth lately either. However, what we need is truly an awakened heart, for with an awakened heart we can and will  bless the Lord at all times. We will breathe with the same depth of oneness on the autumn day of sunny brightness and wonderfully colored foliage as on the sparse winter day of haziness and cool challenging breezes. We will do this literally and figuratively. When "all is right with the world" (translate when things seem to be going our way), we have no trouble "feeling" connected and happy. Joy however is a deeper gift and isn't based on our immediate surroundings or our internal challenges. Joy is a choice just like love is. Joy doesn't depend on whether my stomach is full or whether or not I am lonely. Joy comes simply from knowing that we are loved unconditionally.

I am not talking about the knowledge that is the understanding or the comprehension of the mind. I am rather referring to the knowing that comes from an experience of presence. When we are close to someone, when we have touched soul to soul, we say we "know them." Or perhaps we say to them: you know me better than anyone. This is knowledge of the soul's heart. This is the land of the mystics and it is here in this knowing that is not of the mind that we come to know God and more importantly to receive an awareness of being known by God. It is here in this mystical realm, where words are so pale before the reality, that we experience Presence and are changed.

This Presence changes us in some ways but actually it awakens us to who we have always been as children of a Loving God. It is here that we learn to celebrate joy and to be a people who can bless the Lord and give thanks at all times. Folks who keep a joyful outlook and celebrate presence and thanksgiving in their hearts are not naive. They are often the most suffered of persons; for a vision of the divine clashes with the lies of the world rather violently at times (on the part of the world not the part of the joyful heart). They are however a folk confident in the truth within them; for again it is a knowing of truth not an understanding of truth; it is a celebration of Mystery without a need to dissect the experience.

We are called to awaken fully to the Presence of God within us and to celebrate with all creation the Love that is God. That is the "mission" of our pilgrimage. We are called to be a folk who bless the Lord at all times, the times that the grace is easy to receive, and the times we struggle to let go. The praise of God should always be in our hearts and color our demeanor. Our presence should infect others with goodness, kindness, and mercy. We should be the presence of the Living God for each other in all circumstances. That is what it means to glory in the Lord; to celebrate, no matter the challenge, that we are loved eternally and more passionately than we can conceive.


Of course this doesn't mean that we won't be angry or down or exhausted. Emotions are a part of our human makeup as much as is our corporal physiology. We are more than our corpuscles though, we are a mystery that is of God. In the mystery, tired, discouraged and hanging on by a thread, yet we can be light bearers, we can be a people who choose joy and who live in hope confidently because we know in all circumstances we are unconditionally loved. Then even our lowly selves battered along the way will be glad and others will "hear" the good news in our presence even on our "winter" days.


I believe this is part of the way that the justice of God cries out in us and part of the way that God confronts evil and banishes the darkness, by this simple choice for love, this simple living in the presence that makes the heart joyful. Far from the popular lies of our culture, the soul so disposed gets there not by "looking out for number one at all costs" but by letting go more and more in the simple daily turnings of life that are transformational. God does not want us to be self-effacing that is the polar lie of being egotistical. Both are estranging from the truth. Having journeyed my 57 years though I will tell you, that most of the pilgrimage especially the older we get, is about letting go, about getting out of our own way and letting God be God in our hearts, so we can actually be our true selves.


In this challenge God is very close to us in our brokenheartedness, and he saves us from being crushed time and time again. By freeing us to be a people who know they are loved because of our being drawn into God's Living Presence in some level of wakefulness, we are redeemed to live as the true servants of God. We are liberated to be the creatures we were created to be: our true selves unburdened by all the lies we have bought about who we should or should not be. When our refuge is the Truth of God we don't need shame or guilt, there is only love, holy love for in the embrace of this Love that is Being is all healing and forgiveness.


Let us then always remember that our Lord hears the cries of our poorest most broken selves and loves us into wholeness. So we in response should be a people of joy who bless and praise the Lord at all times and in all the ways of our lives.


God bless.