Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Reflection on Psalm 36 (Br David Arulanatham)





In you is the source of life and in your light we see light.


Psalm 35(36) : 9



In this psalm the psalmist makes a vivid description of the darkness of life as opposed to the life in the light of God. The first part of the psalm alludes to the darkness as experienced by a sinner who refuses to acknowledge neither God nor the ways of God. The rest of the psalm takes on a very positive tone of love, peace and joy that is experienced of how good life with the Lord is.

I found myself very drawn to verse 9 of the psalm which declares God as the source of life and that it is only through the light of God that we will be able to perceive the truth. As, I prayed and reflected further this verse of the psalm my thoughts were taken way back to the creation story where God upon completing his creative work looks on at all that he has created and declares them ‘good’. More than good the human person that God created were created in his image and likeness.

Coincidently the readings for Mass on Monday and Tuesday this week (5th. Week in Ordinary time) took us back to the creation story. In response to the words of the creation story in Genesis we must begin to own the fact that we are good and that we were created in the image and likeness of God. This simply means that our roots are in God, the source of our life, our very being. In addition, having the image and likeness of God means that we do have the attributes of God, the potential to move towards the divine and eventually become another Christ. Therefore, if we begin to cling on to this God in an intimate manner then we will truly see light. In all our joys and struggles we will begin to appreciate God and his abundant loving and merciful ways.

Recently, I was sent a URL for a video clip of a testimony of a lady on ‘the best gift I ever survived:



I found it very good and in some ways it reflects the verse of the psalm that I have chosen to reflect. Hope you will take a view of it and maybe share your thoughts of the clip with me.

It is only when we are connected with God and become in tune and harmony with his ways; we begin to understand who we really are and where our destination is. Jesus was completely in communion with the Father that he was able to fulfil the will of the Father for him even when he had to experience passion and death on the cross. He truly saw the light and lived in the light for he was truly the light of the world.

Let us therefore turn from the light of the world and be connected to the source of that light and live in the light, glorifying God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in our joy and struggles.


Your word is a lamp for my feet
A light on my path
Psalm 119:105


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Stay tuned for the next post by Br Joseph Zhang on 11th Feb 2011.



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