5th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mt 5:13-16) Jesus calls his disciples “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”.
Considering this profound identity given to us, it could happen that our salt loses flavour and our light dims in relation to our choices. In fact, our true and profound identity, from which the most precious things we have derive, must be carefully guarded, like a “treasure in a clay pot” to prevent our life from fraying, becoming insipid and even useless.
As adults we are fundamentally tempted about the significance of our lives, about what is the point of stability and meaning in our existence. And we are tempted with true things ordered in a false way in order to destabilise the central reality of our lives, to lose the most precious things and to remain alone and naked.
It is God’s gift to perceive our life as ‘insipid’, just as it is His gift to notice temptation. And the spiritual life, the ‘inner’ life works exactly like the high-level ‘professional’ life where, if we are not exaggerated, we are already mediocre.
The entrance antiphon, the Introit of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 94 (Ps 94, 6. 7) with the following text:
“Venite, adoremus Deum, et procidamus ante Dominum:
ploremus ante eum, qui fecit nos:
quia ipse est Dominus Deus noster.”
(Come, let us worship God and bow down before the Lord;
let us shed tears before the Lord who made us,
for he is the Lord our God.).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The interpretation can be found on YouTube where there are no indications.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
