Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time/B

Massimo Palombella

In today’s Gospel (Mk 13, 24-32) Jesus, speaking to his disciples about the “last events” (“the sun will be darkened, the moon will no longer give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers that be in heaven will be shaken…”), cites the parable of the fig tree in relation to the ability to read the signs (“when its branch becomes tender and the leaves sprout, you know that summer is near”). “Reading the signs”, noticing what is going on around us is the real skill of life that we build slowly, with discipline, making mistakes and correcting ourselves.  It is that skill that allows us to truly meet the Lord, to meet Him where He is waiting for us and not where we would like Him to be.  Becoming able to “read the signs” means, in some way, moving from a world of illusion to reality, from a God invented to make us feel good to the real God who wants “life in abundance” for each one of us, a God who allows us to encounter cross and suffering only in relation to the fullness of our lives.  Becoming able to “read the signs” means living in the Truth, no longer running away, calling things by their names, setting out quickly to be the men and women we can and should be, the people that the true God, in his infinite love, calls us to become.

The Gradual of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 43 (Ps 43:8, 9) with the following text:
Liberasti nos, Domine, ex affligentibus nos:
et eos qui nos oderunt, confudisti.
In Deo laudabimur tota die, et nomini tuo confitebimur in saecula.

(You have delivered us, Lord, from those who afflict us;
and you have put to shame those who hate us.
In God we shall take pride all day long; and we shall celebrate your name forever.)

The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Gradual Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The interpretation is by the ‘Nova Schola Gregoriana’ conducted by Luigi Agustoni. The musical track can be found on the CD ‘Dirigatur dratio mea’ published by Heristal Entertainment in 2012.

A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.

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