Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time/B

Massimo Palombella

In today’s Gospel (Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23) the Pharisees and some scribes approach Jesus to ask him the reason why his disciples do not behave according to the tradition of the ancients (Jesus’ disciples take food with “unclean” hands, without having washed them). Interestingly, we often find ourselves in the same position as the scribes and Pharisees, namely with the difficulty of accepting and metabolising the new, something that somehow goes beyond our patterns. In fact, in different ways and in relation to our personal history, we are all subtly tempted to build ourselves a sort of ‘bubble’ that defends us from the ‘reality’ that we perceive as harsh, destabilising and from which we are sometimes even a little afraid. The ‘bubble’ defends us, protects us from feeling pain, keeps away anything that could destabilise us by making us lose that fragile equilibrium that we have conquered and defended with strength. But, the ‘bubble’ makes us invest so much energy – our best energies – in spasmodically searching for things that are ‘certain and secure’ and in constantly defending ourselves from everything. In essence, the ‘bubble’ illudes us into living but is, in some ways, our grave. The Lord is waiting for us outside our ‘bubble’, with our fears, those things which destabilise us, our fragility. He waits for us to love each other as we really need to be loved, to heal our wounds, to listen to our pain, to transform our anger into the best of our resources. If we believe in a God who leaves us in our ‘bubble’, who does not challenge us, who does not lead us to the truth, who does not urge us to live in reality, perhaps this ”god” does not exist but we have created him, once again, to defend ourselves, to keep away everything that frightens us, to make us doze off instead of living.

The Offertory antiphon for today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 39 (Ps 39:14.15) with the following text:
“Domine, in auxilium meum respice.
Confundantur et revereantur
qui quaerunt animam meam, ut auferant eam.
Domine in auxilium meum respice.”

(O Lord, look down in order to help me;
let them be covered with confusion and shame,
who seek after my soul to take it away.
O Lord, look down in order to help me.)

The attached music is by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) and is a transcription of manuscript 443 preserved in the Archives of the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna. Interpretation: ‘La Stagione Armonica’ conducted by Sergio Balestracci. The musical track can be found on the CD ‘Alessandro Scarlatti: Responsories for the Holy Week: Good Friday’ published by Sony Music Entertainment Switzerland GmbH in 2020.

A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.

https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/6/68/Ws-scar-dom.pdf