Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mt 18:15-20) Jesus clearly defines our relationship and responsibility towards our brothers and sisters.
What Jesus indicates about our relationships goes beyond the cultural pattern – so rooted – of a certain “irenicism”, it goes beyond “scruples of conscience”, beyond superficially putting things right to avoid problems and tensions.
Once again we are challenged at the heart of our lives, that is, in our habits, in organising our existence with the exclusive concern for not having problems, even at the expense of truth and the true good of those around us.
Jesus questions our deep-rooted habits, our implicit relational modes assimilated by equally implicit educational processes, our tacit seeking solely and only a tranquil and apparently ‘alright’ life.
In essence, the Lord challenges us to face the temptation of a mediocre, tasteless life, where our best energies are devoted to keeping problems at a distance, to safeguarding a ‘façade’ that makes us credible and acceptable before the persons we consider important. The Lord challenges us to live in abundance, to compromise, to encounter ourselves and others ‘beyond’. Beyond the entrenched patterns that defend us and, at the same time, deceive us by consuming our best resources.
The Gradual of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 32 (Ps 32, 12. 6) with the following text:
“Beata gens, cujus est Dominus Deus eorum:
populus quem elegit Dominus in hereditatem sibi.
Verbo Domini caeli firmati sunt:
et spiritu oris ejus omins virtus eorum.”
(Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;
the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance.
By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were established,
and all the power therein by the Spirit of his mouth).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The performance is by the “Choralschola Der Wiener Hofburgkapelle” conducted by Hubert Dopf. The music track can be found on the CD “Gregorian Chant for the Church Year” published in 1991 by Universal International Music B.V..
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
