Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time/B
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mk 6:1-6) Jesus, on his way to his homeland, is somehow rejected by those who knew him.
We too can find ourselves in the same situation as the people described in the Gospel. In fact – perhaps unconsciously – we carry with us ‘preconceptions’ that are the fruit of our history, of the education we have received.
It may happen that we create – or do not abandon – preconceptions basically to defend ourselves, out of fear of reality.
Living with things that are ‘certain and sure’, with answers that are always clear and definite about anything, puts us in a situation of apparent peace, makes us superficially strong and secure, and it deludes us into believing we live. And, without realising it, we cling to certainties, to schemes, to axioms that, by keeping us firm, long cast, prevent us from maturing, from growing professionally, from experiencing, basically, from really living.
The Lord waits for us “beyond” our preconceptions, our schemes, the education we have received, our “sure and certain” things, just as in the Song of Songs the lover finds her beloved “beyond” the scheme of the guards’ patrol: “The guards making their rounds met me: ‘Have you seen the beloved of my heart?’ I had just passed them by, when I found the beloved of my heart.” (Ct 3:3).
But, when we go “beyond” our schemes, our “preconceptions”, we find ourselves weak and defenceless, exactly in the situation where the Lord is waiting for us because – as today’s second reading tells us (2 Cor 12:7-10), “When I am weak, that is when I am strong”.
The Gradual of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 70 (Ps 70, 3. 1) with the following text:
“Esto mihi in Deum protectórem, et in locum refúgii, ut salvum me fácias.
Deus, in te sperávi: Dómine, non confúndar in ætérnum.”
(Be unto me a protecting God, and a house of refuge, to save me.
My God, in you do I trust; O Lord, let me never be put to shame).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The music track can be found on YouTube where there are no indications of interpretation.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
