168th Meditation
“Honour to me is a sacrifice of thanksgiving;
to the upright
I will show God’s salvation” (Ps 49:23).
We should praise our Father without ceasing, thus joining the choirs of angels and saints, for the one who praises God is the one who honors Him.
Moreover, praising the Lord lets us into the deepest dimension of our existence, for to honor Him means to recognize Him, to love Him and to begin to do already here on earth what we will do forever in eternal life.
Can a soul do anything more beautiful than to give thanks to the One who created it, loved it and redeemed it? The deeper its encounter with the Father’s love, the more natural it becomes for the soul to sing the praises of His love.
Our soul perceives His call:
“Listen, my daughter, attend to my words and hear;
forget your own nation and your ancestral home,
then the king will fall in love with your beauty;
He is your lord, bow down before Him” (Ps 44:11-12).
For His sake she leaves everything behind, for God is her true happiness.
Our Father has arranged it this way so that we can experience fulfillment and learn to place everything in the right order, always having God in the first place. In this way, our whole life becomes a praise to the Lord and a great grace for humankind.
When the soul follows the right path, it pleases God. It is the righteousness of an undivided heart, which does what is right in the eyes of God. This criterion permeates the whole being of the person, so that we find in them justice, a love of virtue and for whom lying and simulation are abominable; they are obedient to the Lord and follow His ways…
Such a person is like a pure and purifying river, spreading around themselves an atmosphere of sincerity and truthfulness. The Lord makes them see His salvation, because their life is a joy to God.