Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time/B
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mk 4:26-34) Jesus, using parables, explains the ‘kingdom of God’. To give concreteness to the expression ‘kingdom of God’, we can think of ‘life in abundance’, of all that a person can really desire in life – meaning, being loved, loving, being able to express oneself, a life essentially ‘placed’.
The path that leads us day after day to ‘placing’ our life begins with a ‘small seed’, with something that might seem ‘insignificant’, silly, unworthy, and of which, perhaps, we are even a little ashamed.
In fact, on an attentive reading of our history, we may realise that we have done big, meaningful things with small, ‘poor’ motivations.
For example, we chose to attend a university not so much for the quality of that institution but basically to leave home, we obtained degrees to prove that we were capable, we started an affair with a person out of fear of being alone, we took care of others to communicate a certain image of us or out of our enormous need to exist and be recognised.
In all this, it is interesting to note that the Lord meets us, reaches out to us precisely through our weaknesses, our needs, our poverty, our poor little motivations. Precisely through what, perhaps, we are ashamed of, what we do not consider ‘worthy’, the Lord takes us by the hand and slowly leads us to the truth of our lives, to mature, to become the people we can and should be.
The Offertory antiphon of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 15 (Ps. 15, 7. 8) with the following text:
“Benedícam Dóminum, qui tríbuit mihi intelléctum:
providébam Deum in conspéctu meo semper:
quóniam a dextris est mihi, ne commóvear.”
I w ill bless the Lord who has given me understanding.
I have set the Lord always in my sight;
since he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Gradual Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The music track can be found on YouTube, where there is no indication of interpretation.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
