Memorial of the prophet Elijah who was taken into heaven and left his mantle to Elisha. Read more
Memorial of the prophet Elijah who was taken into heaven and left his mantle to Elisha.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Kings 17,7-16
But after a while the stream dried up, for the country had had no rain. And then the word of Yahweh came to him, 'Up and go to Zarephath in Sidonia, and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to give you food.' So he went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Addressing her he said, 'Please bring a little water in a pitcher for me to drink.' She was on her way to fetch it when he called after her. 'Please', he said, 'bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.' 'As Yahweh your God lives,' she replied, 'I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.' But Elijah said to her, 'Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son. For Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when Yahweh sends rain on the face of the earth.' The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as Yahweh had foretold through Elijah.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
On this day when the Church remembers the prophet Elijah, the Word of God proposes to our meditation the sending of the prophet to the widow in Zarephatah. When the stream from which Elijah had drawn water dried up, the Lord said: “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you”(v. 9). In Zarephath, a region known by all as belonging to Baal, there was water, but no food. Elijah obeyed and went to Zarephath. He found the widow at the city gate and asked her for help. Perhaps Elijah doubted that a poor widow could help him; in fact at first he asks only for a drink. Then, while she went to get water, he also asked for a piece of bread. Revealing all her poverty, and making the word of the Lord even more incomprehensible, the widow replies: “I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug.” Truly nothing. And she adds: “I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” The prophet at this point could have reasonably left: how could he take from the mouth of a poor widow and an orphan the only bread they had left? But Elijah, who believed the word of God, knew that the Lord would protect the widow and the orphan. Thus he first of all comforts her: “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said.” Yes, “do not fear,” “do not be afraid!” The Lord repeats these words to us also, when we allow ourselves to be in the grip of resignation before a calamity, a tragedy or situations which seem to be beyond our grasp. Certainly it was normal for that widow to resign herself before a destiny which seemed inevitable. What could she, so poor, do? She did not shrink and was rewarded. Resignation is overcome when we begin to think of others before ourselves, precisely as that widow did. The prophet exhorts her to prepare a flat loaf for him first, before herself and her son: “Go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son.” Two faiths meet, that of Elijah and that of the poor widow. From faith the miracle is born. Both entrust themselves: Elijah to the Word of God and the widow to the word of the prophet. Such a miracle occurs every time the Word of God is preached and accepted. We can see in this image the story of Christian preaching through which the miracles of the multiplication of love and fraternity take place and continue to take place. If resignation provokes famine, faith leads to miracles. This poor widow and Elijah show us that hearing God’s Word makes our hearts the fount of a love that knows no confines of time or space. The passage concludes: “The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.”
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
