Celebrating in a Crisis?
How is it even possible to be grateful during these dark days of the Coronavirus? I mean, people are really suffering. Some people are getting critically ill and thousands of people are dying. I was thinking about this today as I was reflecting on Psalm 149, which is the Responsorial Psalm for today’s Mass. During a Catholic Mass, we hear a reading from the Book of Psalms. On weekdays, the “responsorial Psalm” comes between the first reading and the Gospel (there is no second reading during the week.) On Sundays, the responsorial Psalm comes between the first and second reading. Psalm 149 is very thought-provoking and inspirational when you look at history. This song reflects back to Exodus when God’s people were saved as they left Egypt and had to cross the Red Sea. Moses and the Israelites sang out to God in gratitude for his triumph over the Egyptians who had been chasing them (the Egyptians drowned by divine intervention). They were so happy that the