Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time/C
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Lk 13:22-30), Jesus says to strive “to enter through the narrow door, for many will try to enter but will not succeed”. The notion of a “narrow door”, it seems to me, changes in the course of our lives. Indeed, there are at every age of our existence several “narrow doors” that challenge us. Facing and completing studies, deciding on one’s identity, learning to be professional in one’s work, making the separations necessary for a dignified life. But, in the face of all these different “narrow doors” that are somehow placed before us from the outside, there is a “narrow door” within us with which, sooner or later, we have to face it, that “narrow door” that represents the true and substantial challenge of our life, facing which, nothing frightens us any more. This “narrow door” is the existential confrontation with our weakness, with what we systematically avoid, with what made us and makes us run away, and makes us compulsively invest our best energies outside of ourselves… The “narrow door” of which Jesus speaks, where to enter is indeed difficult, painful, but it represents the only way to truly mature, to know ourselves in truth, to taste what “peace” means, to go beyond fear, to become what we are truly called to be.
The Alleluia for today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 94 (Ps 94:3) with the following text:
Alleluia. Quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et Rex magnus super omnem terram.
(Alleluia. For the Lord is a great God; a great king over all the earth).
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 about the interpretation.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
