Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.“Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me; O LORD, be my helper.”You changed my mourning into dancing; O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
Psalm 30 various
Is 65:17-21
Thus says the LORD:Lo, I am about to create new heavensand a new earth;The things of the past shall not be rememberedor come to mind.Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happinessin what I create;For I create Jerusalem to be a joyand its people to be a delight;I will rejoice in Jerusalemand exult in my people.No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,or the sound of crying;No longer shall there be in itan infant who lives but a few days,or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.They shall live in the houses they build,and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.
The passage from Isaiah is curiously upbeat for Lent, and especially for this point in Lent. The prophet stresses the fact that God will make a new beginning, and the terms he uses seem to indicate that this will even be a new creation. He begins on the outside, with the "new heaven" and the "new earth," then moves to the rennovation of the lives of the people. He also points to an end to suffering and death, and we read all this just two weeks before we begin Holy Week.
We might notice as well that the psalm, which today we use as our opening prayer, reflects this joy: "At nightfall weeping enters in, but with the dawn rejoicing" and "You changed my mourning into dancing."
Could the Church be calling us, in the midst of our penitence and fasting, to realize what this season of Lent celebrates, where it is actually going? Christ lived and suffered and died for us, but He is not calling us to pain and death but to His Glorious Kingdom.
This is the Jesus, who "for the joy set before Him endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2). This is the Jesus who calls us to follow Him in trust, in love, and in hope, and that in itself is a cause for joy.
God of power and mercy, give us the spirit of prayer and repentance, with burning love for you and for all mankind. Help us to work with you in making all things new in Christ, and in spreading justice and peace throughout the world.
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