Today we celebrate the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. To celebrate this Sunday, we have chosen the Introit Dicit Dominus ego cogito. This Sunday's Mass, being the one before Christ the King Sunday, has certain characteristics of a synthesis of the whole liturgical year. This Introit is a closing of the cycle of Sundays of the year. It is an oracle taken from the prophet Jeremiah 29,11-12 in which the voice of the Lord resounds, saying: I have plans for Peace. It is one of the last great announcements of the prophets: the return from captivity. Thus the Lord spoke through his prophet to the captives of Babylon. Words of hope that, beyond the long years of exile, brought to their eyes the supreme consolation of divine peace and the return to the homeland. Jeremiah from Jerusalem sends to his fellow captives the promise of forgiveness and mercy, a message full of peace and confidence, prophesying that after the necessary atonement, the exile will end and the return to the Promised Land will come. The words of the prophet are a balm for the captive people, prey to despair, to the false prophets who only foretell despair and all kinds of calamities.

For us, after the year with all its vicissitudes, this oracle confirms that all the plans of the Lord are plans of Peace and not of affliction. And, on the other hand, it assures us that, when we call upon Him in the future, He will listen. But the greatest promise He makes is that He will deliver his own from captivity in all the places where they have been scattered. The Eternal Father continues to speak to his children at the end of this liturgical year. Trials will not last, they are necessary to strengthen souls and purify them, but what He really desires for his people is peace, rest in his beatitude. May they continue to pray and trust, and from all the places and times in which captivity has held them, He will bring them back to Paradise.

As for the melody, this piece is composed in mode 6 and, because of the way this mode uses its fundamental F, it makes the announcement take on a consistency and firmness that becomes its greatest richness. It is a peaceful, serene announcement from a musical point of view. From the musical construction, it can be said that more important than the announcement made by this divine oracle, more important is the very Person of God who speaks to his people from the depths of his being and his heart: I have thoughts of peace. Therefore, being an oracle, it is a true revelation of God's being and his interiority: he is a God of peace and mercy. Although the melody makes a long journey, not usual in mode 6, it never loses its serenity and calm.

Musically, this is achieved from the intonation, which begins by announcing the oracle in which the Lord will speak (Dicit Dominus), from the low register, the depths of this mode 6 and the depths of God; and, thanks to this, it is clothed in great solemnity and expectation, a certain mystery with that masterly brushstroke of the B flat which prepares those who are listening with great expectation for what will come out of those depths of God. After that descent into the low register, the melody ascends to settle in the fundamental F and from there the oracle begins. The oracle is born from the F (ego): the voice of the Lord rises softly to the A to manifest that he has plans (cogito) and returns to the fundamental amplified with a tristrophe, plans that will extend and last: this is not a passing thing.

After this, the melody immediately descends back to the low register, repeating the musical turn of intonation of the piece. God's "thoughts" (cogitationes) spring from the depths of his being. All this is articulated around the fundamental and also the dominant, which this time appears strongly (especially thanks to the salicus). But in pacis there is a great contrast: the melody makes a rapid ascent with a very consistent fifth (F-A-C) that further emphasises the bivirga on the C, the melodic summit of the piece, and slowly descends in a wide pneumatic context, articulated to make the solemn announcement that these thoughts are "of peace". This declaration of thoughts of peace is immediately followed, as a clarification: et non aflictionis (they are not plans of affliction). The musical construction is similar to the previous one, only it is lighter and more agile, without the consistency that the "plans of peace" have; a little more tenderness through these oscillating, soft notes, again from the masterly use of the B flat, but the great musical charge it receives helps to confirm what is said in their hearts: it passes from their heart to our heart.

In the second phrase the melody acquires an agility that becomes noticeable by contrast with the previous one. The Lord continues to speak and now tells his people that when they call upon him, he will listen (invocabitis me, et ego exaudiam vos). In invocabitis the melody rises rapidly, from the fundamental to the dominant until it reaches for the third time the melodic peak of this piece, the C. There is a tone of joyfulness, of full confidence in what is being expressed, a luminous invocation reinforced by the contrast of the B natural that now appears, a plea that rises towards the heights of the C whose answer descends to the earth, the F; that is, an invocation that receives an answer, a promise fulfilled. The fundamental prepares the second part, with complete certainty that it will be so, the confirmation that the supplication will be heard. A brief recitative in F, before ascending strongly in exaudiam, again, in the verbal accent as before in invocabitis, but this time the melody is invested with a tinge of devotion thanks to the use and repetition of the B flat (five times) and the melodic movement is given a certain solemnity and gravity in the little melisma that closes this second phrase.

The last phrase contains a promise: et reducam captivitatem vestram (and I will bring back your captives). It is like a confidential whisper, but in which such a firm and strong assurance is conveyed! The initial character of the piece is taken up again. Its expression is agile and light, totally grounded in the fundamental. However, in the final section (de cunctis locis, from all parts), in contrast to the initial agility of the phrase, the melody makes a slow ascent covering an octave: it starts from the low C of the intermediate cadence until it reaches the summit, the high C. The melodic movement rises to the top, the C-sharp. The melodic movement rises with imposing, irresistible force, ratifying that promise with all the authority of divine power, as if to represent that those thoughts of peace and mercy will truly embrace all those who have put their trust in the Lord, and will reach everywhere they are.