Psalm one begins with: “Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked.” Of course, we wish the circle of all our friends are only good people and thank God that they are not involved in some shady deals, mafia and the like. That’s what I initially understood it to be about. I am sure you just finished scanning all your friends mentally. For full disclosure, I did it too in my mind. I found the meaning behind the counsel of the wicked to be more extensive than I thought. I came to understand that it could simply mean buying into the world’s ways. That made me realize that we always end up with a big mess, when we have become so in love with our own selves instead of God. It is easy for us to slide into the wicked category. None would like to consider themselves wicked! However, we humans, have been nasty to each other, and validated our excuses for doing it. Cain and Abel are our very first example which ended in tragedy. Who will fix this? The United Nations have not fixed wars on this planet, so who will fix this? We feel a sense of betrayal, and our internal compass scream justice. Of all the ills of our society that touch us every day, we feel cheated and unconsoled. God listens, and is heartbroken by the cries of the people who sincerely love him. So, God sent his only Son into the world, to bring order into the chaos that we have brought about, to restart a new creation order, beginning with us. Today, we have an opportunity to learn from Jesus the Son of God whose intercession, bid us all to repent and return back to God our Father and our creator.
That day, Jesus was with his disciples and could sense the deepest cries of our hearts and theirs; the cries of injustices in our world, the cries of loss and loneliness. Jesus prayed. He pointed out what we ought to do in those difficult moments: Pray like He prayed, quiet your heart because we tend to be scattered in our thoughts and contemplate on the meaning of the cross, (the complete emptying of himself as God, to become one of us in the form of a slave, and become obedient to the point of death). Jesus talks about knowing the truth of who He is, and about the joy of knowing him. The counsel of the wicked is anything that drains us of the joy of the Lord. He bids us to acquire that love and trust that was between God the Father and Jesus His Son. That’s why He prayed to the Father: “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
Jesus didn’t want to send us empty handed and unprepared. As a high priest would sanctify himself as part of the Leviticus rituals, Jesus did the same by praying for himself, for the apostles and for all of us who believe in him through the word of truth. A word he says will sanctify us. Jesus calls us to a strong inward identity, as a people of righteousness, joy and peace. That’s the way to face the issues in our world: cruelty, hatred, violence, fear, suffering, oppression. He calls us to know that those are not the most powerful forces around. Divine love is most powerful. As Bishop Barron summed it up well: “God’s Kingdom has broken the Kingdoms of the world, which thrive upon negativities and in turn, produce those very negativities.” Jesus prayed for a new way out: that these darkest places of our world may not prevail in our lives, but be transformed into places of healing, an oasis of refuge, a peaceful respite. You and I have a part to play in this mission. We are sent to make this place a better world.
Having heard all this, what will be worthier of our pursuit? Will it be the counsel of a world full of itself and its pressure for us to measure up? Or will it be God’s oasis full of Jesus prayer, the truth and eternal life. Jesus prayed for us and for those who would come to believe in him, so that we would understand the truth and decide to choose wisely every day.
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