XXXth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Lk 18:9-14), through the parable of the Pharisee and publican, Jesus focuses on an important and at the same time delicate aspect of our relationship with God.
There are means that lead us to an end. The end is having a living and life-giving relationship with God, a relationship of love that stabilises our lives by slowly bringing us to bring clarity to every reality of our existence. A relationship that, to be such, requires trust and surrender, a relationship that is not static but dynamic that continually leads us to go “beyond”.
The means to realise this relationship are prayer, asceticism, fasting, wise self-knowledge, healthy discipline… But when these means become the end, we find ourselves in the same situation as the Pharisee who illudes himself that he possesses God because he does things, he illudes himself that he is “in order” because he simply fulfils precepts. In this logic, there is no longer any “relationship” with God who, once again, becomes our invention to illuding ourselves that we are OK.
The true God awaits us “beyond” our complacency, “beyond” our achievements and our capacity for asceticism. He waits for us with our unresolved issues, with that which, through great exercises and asceticism, we do our best to keep away. He awaits us without defences, with our fears, to love us as we truly need.
The Gregorian Hallelujah verse of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 147 (Ps 147:1) with the following text:
“Alleluia. Lauda, Ieruasalem, Dominum: lauda Deum tuum, Sion”
(Alleluia. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Gradual Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. Interpretation: “The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz”. The music track can be found on the CD ‘Chant for Peace’ published by Deutsche Grammophon in 2015.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
