Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time/B
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mk 12, 28-34) Jesus, responding to one of the scribes, and citing the Old Testament, focuses on a fundamental question of our life. In fact, living with a total, unique love, with a “magnetic point” capable of organising and ordering every detail of our existence, if we are honest, is the only thing that really makes our life worth living. We all ultimately desire to be in love and remain so, but remaining in love is not always so obvious and requires determination, effort and even, at times, suffering. Truly loving the people in our lives, wife, husband, children, the people entrusted to our care, should slowly lead us to the origin and source of all love, to God. In essence, at a certain point in our journey, if we are discerning, we realise that we love God by loving the people who constitutes our life. And it is precisely in this dimension – and only in this dimension – that our existence acquires unity, our relationship with God becomes “real”, in the sense that we slowly begin to believe in and entrust ourselves to a God who is no longer an invention of ours to make us feel good, but a vital relationship that changes our existence for the better. This means “not being far from the kingdom of God”, from “life in abundance”, as Jesus, at the end of today’s Gospel, tells the scribe.
The Gradual of today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 47 (Ps 47, 10. 11. 9) with the following text:
Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam in medio templi tui.
Secundum nomen tuum, Domine (Deus), ita et laus tua in fines terrae.
Sicut audivimus, ita et vidimus in civitate Dei nostri in monte sancto eius.
(We have received your mercy, O God, in the midst of your temple;
even as your name, so does your praise extend to the ends of the earth.
All that we have heard, we have now seen, in the city of our God, on his holy mountain).
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The performance is by the “Schola Gregoriana Scriptoria” conducted by Fabio Framba. The music track can be found on the CD ‘Gabrieli: Missa brevis 4 vocum’ published by Tactus in 2013.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
