Fifth Sunday of Easter/C
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (John 13: 31-33a. 34-35) Jesus gives the Apostles the “new commandment”, that of loving one another as he himself has loved them.
Jesus’ ‘new’ commandment is such because it can slowly make our lives ‘new’. In fact, allowing ourselves to be challenged by Jesus in our relationships means recognising and distancing ourselves from deep-seated cultural-educational habits that imperceptibly shape our relationships.
A certain idea of justice where those who have done wrong must pay, where those who have been wronged, slandered must somehow put things right in a sort of vindictive logic that re-establishes the order of things, all of which, this precise idea of justice, if we are honest, does not belong to the Gospel and ultimately does us no good.
Learning to look “beyond” is what slowly makes our lives “new”, it is what enables us to transform our faith from an abstract idea to a concrete fact.
Learning – not without effort and suffering – that the big things must be forgiven and the small things need not be considered, is to enter into the logic of the Gospel that leads us to make our lives ‘new’, to live better, to become, each day more, the people we can and should be.
Today’s Offertory antiphon is taken from Psalm 65 (Ps 65, 1.2.16) with the following text:
Iubilate Deo, universa terra, psalmum dicite nomini eius.
Venite, et audite, et narrabo vobis, omnes qui timetis Deum,
quanta fecit Dominus animae meae, alleluia.
(Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; shout with joy to God, all the earth; sing a psalm in honour of his name;
come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what great things the Lord has done for my soul, alleluia).
The attached music is by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), and comes from the book of ‘Offertoria totius anni’ published in Venice in 1594 (GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA, [Venetiis, apud Angelum Gardanum 1594]). The interpretation live, is by the Musical Chapel of the Duomo of Milan at the concert (as part of the concerts for the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) performed in Milan in the Church of San Gottardo in Corte on 8 May 2025.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
