Blessed Are the Blameless!

Psalm 119:1

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD!

Words like “righteousness” don’t sit well on the ear these days.  If we say “Joe is a righteous person” we generally do so, these days, in sarcasm.  There’s a sort of stiff rectitude that goes with the term that makes it ill-suited to fit in with modernity. It evokes a sense of wooden and unnatural awkwardness, like Al Gore dancing the Macarena.  But this sort of rigidity is not at all what moves the biblical writers to poetry about “blamelessness” and “walking in the way of the Lord.”  Rather, for them, the “righteous” or “blameless” person is, above all, the free, blessed and deeply happy person, because he lives in reality and therefore is balanced and healthy.  And a prominent icon of that blameless happiness in our deeply unhappy age is none other than the Child.  For the child is, quite literally, blameless and is therefore not hampered by a stiff and unreal rectitude, but is rather free to love and enjoy the whole panoply of life that comes his way.  Today, live out the blamelessness given you in baptism, walk in the law of the Lord, and view life through the eyes of a child.

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Mark P. Shea is a popular Catholic writer and speaker. The author of numerous books, his most recent work is The Work of Mercy (Servant) and The Heart of Catholic Prayer (Our Sunday Visitor). Mark contributes numerous articles to many magazines, including his popular column “Connecting the Dots” for the National Catholic Register. Mark is known nationally for his one minute “Words of Encouragement” on Catholic radio. He also maintains the Catholic and Enjoying It blog and regularly blogs for National Catholic Register. He lives in Washington state with his wife, Janet, and their four sons.

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