Psalm 1:3
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water,
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

Yesterday’s verse discussed the problem of partaking in the adolescent sins of rebellion that so characterize our race.  Today’s verse tells us the positive side: what happens if we make God our source and goal.  It turns out that the picture given is not at all of thin-lipped, white-knuckled “righteousness.”  Indeed, the Scriptural portrait of holiness is one of profound peace.  In today’s image, it is of a tree fed by a continual stream, not subject to the extremes of drought, but sure of the supply of water at all times.  It experiences seasons, to be sure, but not seasons of alternating love and abandonment, only of fruitfulness and fallowness.  Even its down times are up times for they are merely preparations for greater fruitfulness in the future.  Something like this is shown in the Rosary, where even the Sorrowful Mysteries are not the end of the story, but merely the trough before the crashing wave of the Glorious Mysteries swamps creation with divine grace.  That, at bottom, is what life is really like.  It is not a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.  Nor is it a mere tragedy.  Rather, it is a rhythm, beginning in joy, passing through pain and death, and climaxing in glory.  That is rhythm of the life of Christ, and so it is the rhythm of reality itself.  Today, enter into the mystery of the life of Christ wherever you are in the rhythm of your life.

By Mark Shea

Mark P. Shea is a Catholic author, blogger, and speaker.