You may recall the daring rescue that occurred just over a month ago when an experienced cave diver, Mark Dickey, became trapped in a Turkish cave. He was more than 3,000 feet below the entrance of the cave when he began to experience internal bleeding. His rescue over the next week became an international operation with over 190 experts participating, some of whom descended to medically treat him below and then gradually bring him to the surface via a very treacherous route. All the while, the world was watching, waiting, and praying for a successful outcome, which, thank God, it was.
I thought of that incident when I read our responsorial psalm today. The opening words are ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord’. Sometimes we may feel like we’re at the bottom of a deep cave because of a seemingly unsolvable situation, or the burden of our sins, or our lack of trusting that God will rescue us. This psalm invites us to turn to the Lord with our whole heart, broken as it may be, and beg for his kindness and mercy. It pleads: “Let your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication.”
As the psalm continues, we hear something that we must do that is very hard to do, that is. ‘wait’.
Let Israel wait for the LORD,
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption.
No doubt waiting in that cave to be rescued was excruciating for that injured diver. But his rescuers couldn’t be rushed, and he had to learn to be patient. Likewise, God asks us to wait so that we can learn patience, and wisdom, and humble submission to God’s plan. Waiting is a spiritual discipline where we can learn to trust God more, and eventually receive what this psalm proclaims: “The Lord is kindness and with him is plenteous redemption”.
As we heard in our Sunday readings recently from Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord”. And so, we wait in humble submission for God’s ways to manifest themselves in our lives.
Perhaps today, out of our own depths, we can ask ourselves: How do we slow down and do our own waiting for the Lord who desires to gift us with all the graces we need.
