Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 13, 54-58
and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, 'Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?
This is the carpenter's son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude?
His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?'
And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country and in his own house,'
and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus returns to Nazareth, his “homeland,” where he is with “his people.” It is easy to reduce the Lord to the limits of our sad wisdom. We do it with everyone. We believe we know someone right away because we know where he comes from, or because of a memory we have of him, his attitude, or how he talks, or because we used to spend time with him. We trust our impressions, whether because we consider them infallible or just because they are ours, and therefore true. The inhabitants of Nazareth knew Jesus well. They had seen him grow up, had played with him, and had sat next to him in the synagogue. He comes back to them. He does not present himself as someone else; he has not taken on a new appearance. He is the same as always, but now with a wisdom that his people cannot understand, and which scandalizes them. The way the inhabitants of Nazareth react - out of fear, habit, conformism, and superficiality - is profoundly sad: everyone is what he or she is; no one can really change; it is useless to dream, because everyone always stays the same. A few features, some appearances, can change but in the end, one is always the same! Therefore the truth is that no one can do anything and that it is never worth even try to do it. This is the resigned and realistic wisdom of the world: people think they know everything, but they do not know love, the heart, or life. Even in present day, for example, we are well informed about everything that happens in the world, and we get the news in real time, but we do not understand with our hearts, and consequently we have little capacity for love. In the end, everything just blends into the little we already know. We think we know everything about life, we spend hours trying to figure things out, but we do not understand things with love. Those who become disciples know Jesus - not the ones who think they are his people by nature, inheritance, merit, or because they have been close to him. Jesus’ true family is made up of the poor, sinners, those who trust in him, those who need to be loved, those who do not try to be cunning and malicious, those who do not make their mistrust into their truth, and those who do not believe themselves to be just. The little ones - and that is what we are all called to be - understand who Jesus is. But how often do we instead treat him with presumption and a sense of self-sufficiency, like the inhabitants of Nazareth. The problem is that our hearts do not change; not Jesus. We cannot know the Lord once and for all. If we listen to him with our heart, through the different seasons of our lives, he will reveal the ever-new mystery of his love.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
