Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time/C
Massimo Palombella
Today’s Gospel (Lk 10:38-42) recounts the famous encounter between Jesus, Martha and her sister Mary. It is interesting to dwell on what Jesus says to Martha: “Martha, Martha, you toil and fret about many things, but there is only one thing you need”. In fact, like Martha, we too fret and agitate over many things that basically belong to the unplaced and unaccepted issues of our history. We fret for a little consideration, we agitate when we find ourselves reliving unresolved ancestral relationships, we invest so much energy in the fear of not succeeding, of failing, of being alone, of shattering an image of ourselves, of leaving apparent securities. The only thing we need is to learn slowly – and not without suffering – to go beyond our agitations, our anxieties, our fears to find the truth within us. If God exists in my life and is a real interlocutor, then slowly I am called to realise that the only important thing is to “cast all my troubles into him” (cf. Ps 55:22), “to cast all my worries into him, for he cares for me” (cf. 1 Pet 5:6-7). “To choose the better part”, as Martha’s sister Mary did, is to invest in the true quality of our lives, it is to know how to make those important and necessary separations that make us truly free persons, it is to enter into the logic that our value is not in what we do but in who we are, and that the real challenges, those that lead us to be the persons we can and should be, are within us, where God, the true God is waiting for us and will never stop waiting for us.
Today’s Offertory antiphon is taken from Psalm 18 (Ps 18:9.11.12) with the following text:
Iustitiae Domini rectae, laetificantes corda, et dulciora super mel et favum.
Nam et servus tuus custodiet ea.
(The ordinances of the Lord are right, bringing joy to all hearts, sweeter than honey or the honeycomb.
Therefore your servant will observe them).
The attached music is by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), and comes from the book of the “Offertoria totius anni” published in Venice in 1594 (Offertoria totius anni [Venetiis, apud Angelum Gardanum 1594]). The live performance is by the Musical Chapel of the Duomo of Milan at the concert in the Church of San Gottardo in Milan on 13 March 2025.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
