Thursday
of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Psalm 19)
The psalm
response today gave rise to a memorable line of Abraham Lincoln: “The judgments
of the Lord are true and all of them just.” Lincoln was reflecting on the Civil
War in his magisterial Second Inaugural Address shortly before his
assassination. He lamented how the war
devastated the land and slaughtered its people.
Yet at the same it facilitated God’s purpose of ending slavery in the
nation.
The psalm
itself gives tribute to God’s creation.
It begins with a reflection on the sun which comes and goes every day as
it warms the earth. The psalm continues
with a paean to God’s law. Like the sun,
the law is unrelenting in its benefit for the people. It instructs all as it lays down the rules
for a just society.
As the
United States celebrates its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, it should
thank God especially for Abraham Lincoln.
As its president, he led the people to a self-understanding that
coordinated its high aspirations with the people’s deep Biblical faith.
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