Footnotes

1. Psalm 121:5 The Lord maintains himself at his faithful’s “right hand,” the side of favor and trust, to “shade” them from the fierce heat of the sun and the malevolent influence of the moon. The ancients feared the evil spiritual effects of the moon (see Mt 17:15) as well as the bad physical effects of the sun (see Jud 8:3; Isa 49:10). The antiphon used with this psalm during the Easter Season in the Liturgy of the Hours, “The Lord watches over his people, and protects them as the apple of his eye,” reminds us that because of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection no physical or spiritual force can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (see Rom 8:31-39).