We should mediate on the law of the Lord day and night.

Friday, 12/11/15

Today our Responsorial Psalm is Psalm One. It is a summary of the holy wisdom contained in all 150 Psalms. It consuls us to meditate on the law of the Lord. And, a good way for us to do that, is for us to recite the Psalm itself.

“Happy the man who follows not the console of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners; nor sits in the company of the insolent. But delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates on the law of the Lord day and night.”

The Psalm then asks us to picture the just man as a tree by a wandering stream. Its fruit are ripe, and its  leaves are always green.

“He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.”

The Psalm then turns stern.

“Not so the wicked, not so, they are like the chaff which the wind takes away.”

When winnowing is done  by torchlight at night, the heavy grain falls to the mats, while the chaff,  becoming a cloud of wicked yellow, it wafted away.

“For the Lord watches over he way of the just, but the way of the wicked perishes.”