“This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia!” (Psalm 118:24)

Throughout the Easter octave – the eight days from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday – the Church repeats this verse from Psalm 118 again and again. It is the alleluia verse before the Gospel at daily Masses. It is the responsory used in both Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer during the Liturgy of the Hours. The entirety of Psalm 118 is recited daily during Daytime Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. One of the most beautiful Gregorian chants in the Church’s musical tradition – Haec Dies, which is Latin for “This is the Day” – puts this verse to a haunting melody that can be sung throughout these liturgies (see below for a video). In all, a person who participates in the daily liturgy of the Church will encounter Psalm 118:24 over thirty times during the octave, so there’s little risk of forgetting that you’re supposed to rejoice during Easter!

The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead gives us a reason to rejoice not only on the days of Easter but every single day, because it gives us a reason to hope that God is ordering every detail of history toward a beautiful conclusion. If God can take the most horrid act of humanity – the murder of the only Son of God – and turn it into the most beautiful act – his Resurrection – then we can trust that God is ordering the details of our own lives toward our own salvation. In the light of the Resurrection, even the worst day of history, the day humanity crucified Jesus, can be called “Good” Friday.

Think about all the tiny details that Jesus foresaw as he prepared for his own death and Resurrection: He told the disciples that they would find a colt tied up in the village, which they should obtain for his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Mark 11:2-3). He told them that they would find a man carrying a jug of water in the city, who would provide a place for them to eat the Last Supper on Holy Thursday (Luke 22:10-12). He predicted that Judas would betray him to the authorities (Matthew 26:21-25). He predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed (Luke 22:31-34). God had foreseen each of these details and was weaving them into the story of our salvation through Jesus Christ.

God also foresees all the particular moments of each of our own days and orders them toward our eternal good. Nothing, however incomprehensible, is outside of his eternal providence. Even when things in our lives seem out of control, God's perfect plan is unfolding.

I have occasionally found myself reflecting on the words of Psalm 118 when I’m having a bad day. On Palm Sunday, for example, I had to take one of our kids to the emergency room for some unexplained pains. The following day, I had to take my wife and three of our kids to the doctor’s office to deal with a bad case of strep throat. Both the unpleasantness of the waiting rooms and the prospect of unexpected medical expenses made these days that I would not have chosen on my own. I won’t pretend that I was cheerful throughout each day, but I was consoled by the knowledge that they were the days God – who is always good – had chosen for us to have. Each was “the day the Lord had made” (Psalm 118:24). Difficult circumstances are made much more bearable by the knowledge that no moment of our lives is outside of God’s loving plan.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church 313 highlights how God orders all the details of history for our salvation:

“We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him” (Roman 8:28). The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:

St. Catherine of Siena said to “those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them”: “Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.”

St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: “Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.”

Dame Julian of Norwich: “Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith. . . and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time - that ‘all manner [of] thing shall be well.’”

In the light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can have a reason to hope on even the most dismal days. God is ordering the details of every single day of our lives toward a beautiful conclusion – our eternal salvation. If we cooperate with God's grace in our daily lives, then we, too will share in the glorious Resurrection of Jesus, and will come to understand the whole scope of our lives in the light of that Resurrection. May we follow the example of the saints and begin each day with the conviction, “This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it” (Psalm 118:24). Alleluia!

For those who would like to hear the traditional Haec Dies chant, here is a video: