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
Numbers 11, 4b-15
'Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic!
But now we are withering away; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna!'
The manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium.
The people went round gathering it, and ground it in a mill or crushed it with a pestle; it was then cooked in a pot and made into pancakes. It tasted like cake made with oil.
When the dew fell on the camp at night-time, the manna fell with it.
Moses heard the people weeping, each family at the door of its tent. Yahweh's anger was greatly aroused; Moses too found it disgraceful,
and he said to Yahweh: 'Why do you treat your servant so badly? In what respect have I failed to win your favour, for you to lay the burden of all these people on me?
Was it I who conceived all these people, was I their father, for you to say to me, "Carry them in your arms, like a foster-father carrying an unweaned child, to the country which I swore to give their fathers"?
Where am I to find meat to give all these people, pestering me with their tears and saying, "Give us meat to eat"?
I cannot carry all these people on my own; the weight is too much for me.
If this is how you mean to treat me, please kill me outright! If only I could win your favour and be spared the sight of my misery!'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
How easily God’s people complain, thinking that the problem that makes them vulnerable to difficulties and uncertainty is not their disbelief. They do not address the problems they face on their path, but think that the problem is that the Lord does not protect them enough! And fear makes small problems big; it fills them with nostalgia and makes them look for false security. Even the disciples think that Jesus had not sufficiently cared about their real needs, so much so that Peter asks assurances about what will happen to those who left everything to follow him. Evil always generates in us the belief we do not have enough, the sad conviction of being abandoned, and hides the many signs of mercy and the presence of God. So we are taken by “greed,” the temptation to possess, consume, measure, to have today, to seize the reward. The past becomes nostalgia, fantasies of what has been lost, forgetting that we were actually slaves, and that the food we ate was full of bitterness. And when we look back we no longer recognize the gifts we have and what they mean. Manna fed the people and protected them, but they did not feel joy, they longed for what they had not. Moses hears the cry of the people and in some ways makes it his own. The Lord is indignant for the disbelief of the people but Moses complains to God, because he feels that the whole burden of the people has been placed upon him. He thinks that he is the one who has to find the answer and he obviously does not have the strength. Moses is uncertain facing the disbelief of his people and does not know how to respond to their cries. He feels all his inadequacy and he submits it to God. “I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.” Often the disciples of the Lord feel the labour the journey requires, and they demand security and a full life. But God is not offended; he listens to everything and leaves no request unheard.
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
