Let My Hand Wither and My Tongue Cleave to My Palate

Homily for Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

The responsorial psalm for today, Psalm 137, is a lamentation. However, this lamentation is unlike any other found in the Book of Psalms. The lament is spoken by those Israelites who had been charged with providing the music for the Temple liturgies. It is used today as a response to the reading from the Second Book of Kings which details the second attack upon Jerusalem by the Assyrians, an attack that resulted in the complete devastation of the city of Zion and its Temple.

Two verses of this psalm exemplify how dark and hopeless the situation of the Babylonian captivity seems to be for this particular group of Israelites. The two gifts that a musician would cherish most, their hands – used to pluck their stringed instruments – and their “tongues” – which makes it possible for them to sing the words of the Psalms. “May my right hand be forgotten and may my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember not Jerusalem.”

Temple worship was one of the most important parts of the life of any Jew. Anything that would stand in the way of being able to participate in the liturgy of the Temple would have been considered devastating in its consequences. The Gospel text for today, which features the cleansing of the leper, one who would not have been allowed into the temple because of his leprosy, considers perhaps of the most devastating disease of that time. Not only would it have curtailed any ability to enter the temple, it would relegate the leper to the fringes of society, unable to live with his family or to practice his trade to support that family.

As we consider the plight of these musicians and of the leper, let us dwell upon what it would mean for us if we did not have the ability to participate in the Eucharist. Let us express our gratitude not only for this gift but for our ability to participate in it.