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
Psalm 33, 12-13.18-22
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all humankind.
18 Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 to deliver their soul from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
21 Our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The liturgy places on our lips a few verses from psalm 33, a hymn to the Word of God that creates, that leads history on the path of justice and love, and that guides the people the Lord has chosen with maternal passion. The psalmist signs of the happiness of the “the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage” (v. 12). In one verse he encapsulates the mystery of the covenant between God and Israel. In his mercy, the Lord chooses Israel as his people. And this choice is at the root of Israel’s happiness. But there is also the acceptance of the covenant by Israel and the recognition of the Lord as their only God. This is the mystery that traverses the entire Holy Scripture, starting with the pages of Exodus. The Lord says to his people, “Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Ex 19:5-6). The people of the Lord the smallest of all the nations has the mission of testifying to the greatness and the love of the Lord to all the peoples of the earth. God’s boundless gaze is at the root of the “priestly” that is, holy mission of the people of believers to the entire world. God, indeed, has a universal gaze, as we sing in the psalm: “The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind” (v. 13). The Lord sees all peoples; he sees our gigantic cities; he sees a globalized world. And he loves everyone, with no exceptions. And he chooses a few people to speak to all the peoples, a small group of people to speak to the great people of the city. These words remind us of God’s decision not to save people one by one but by gathering them in a people. This biblical wisdom goes against the individualism that continues to increase its power, pushing men and women to think of themselves as disconnected from each other. The Lord looks at men and women to save them from the power of evil. The image of the Lord as a good shepherd who gathers the scattered sheep to lead them together to green pastures where they can rest is common in both the Old and the New Testament. The psalmist sings that “the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine” (v. 18-19). If the Lord’s eyes are on his people, then the people’s eyes also need to be on their Lord. There is an invitation to look at each other: just as the Lord cannot take his eyes off the people whom he chose, so too, should we never take our eyes off the Lord. And yet how easily we bend down and look at ourselves, never looking past our narrow horizons. The last three verses of the psalm help us raise our eyes, “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (v. 20-22). These words express the joy of a believer, and according to Christian practice they are used to close the Te Deum, the traditional song of thanksgiving.
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
