Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Colossians 1, 1-8
From Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy
to God's holy people in Colossae, our faithful brothers in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
We give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually in our prayers,
ever since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God's holy people
because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven. News of this hope reached you not long ago through the word of truth, the gospel
that came to you in the same way as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world. It has had the same effect among you, ever since you heard about the grace of God and recognised it for what it truly is.
This you learnt from Epaphras, our very dear fellow-worker and a trustworthy deputy for us as Christ's servant,
and it was he who also told us all about your love in the Spirit.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul adds Timothy's greetings to his own and thanks God "always" for the faith of the Christians in Colossae. He has heard of the vitality of the community, and summarizes its life in the three pillars that sustain it: faith, love, and hope. The first is "faith in Christ Jesus", that is, the acceptance of Jesus as the true Good and the only Lord and Saviour. The second is love, the love that the disciples receive from Christ and which leads them to consider others as brothers and sisters, as members of the one family of God. Love removes all boundaries to evangelical love and allows it to act as a leaven of unity for the whole world. Hope, for the apostle, is for the final goal” the unity of all. This ultimate goal, which is already present in the Risen One, is what sustains our faith and keeps our fraternal love alive. The believer, who, through baptism, is immersed in the mystery of Christ, who died and is risen, already lives "with Christ" (3:3). The believer can already be found with the Risen One, even if we are still waiting for his full manifestation. The Christian who receives baptism is like a seed, which already contains its entire future and is waiting for its fulfilment. By referring to these three pillars in his open words of thanksgiving, Paul reveals his concern for a community that risks being polluted by a false sense of security. He calls it back to the essential: a personal relationship with Christ and fraternal communion. The Gospel, the apostle insists, does not deceive; it is trustworthy. And it is already bearing fruit. The apostle is not just thinking of the Colossians; he is thinking of the other communities that are emerging in other regions of the Roman Empire. Before his eyes, and so before his joys and concerns, he sees the one Gospel taking flesh in many local communities, giving life to the one Church. Of course, the spread of Christianity was still limited in the apostle's time, but its universal dimension was already clear. After all, Jesus had compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds, that would grow as big as a tree. But the community can grow only if it stays connected to the sap of the seed and the strength of the leaven. Paul and Timothy had learned from Epaphras, the man who had started the community of Colossae, that the Holy Spirit was at work in the hearts of all (this is the only time the Spirit is mentioned in the Letter). It is truly a community in good health, that is, a Church that continues to listen to the Gospel and put it into practice. In this sense, the bonds they have to Epaphras also connect them to Paul and Timothy, creating the fraternity of the Church, a force that can change the world. ?
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
