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 19,3-12
Some Pharisees approached him, and to put him to the test they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?' He answered, 'Have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh? They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh. So then, what God has united, human beings must not divide.' They said to him, 'Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?' He said to them, 'It was because you were so hard-hearted, that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: anyone who divorces his wife -- I am not speaking of an illicit marriage -- and marries another, is guilty of adultery.' The disciples said to him, 'If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is advisable not to marry.' But he replied, 'It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born so from their mother's womb, there are eunuchs made so by human agency and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus' has begun his mission in Jerusalem, where he will stay until the end of his days. A great crowd is following him, and, as always, he continues to teach and heal the sick people who are brought before him. His work, which had already encountered obstacles in Galilee, now finds even stronger opposition. The spirit of evil does not stop its determined opposition to the Gospel. The Pharisees become its tools and ask him a question about "divorcing" a wife: whether it is lawful to divorce her for "any cause," as some claimed. There was considerable debate on this topic at that time. Nonetheless, Jesus does not respond to the question directly but prefers to recall God's original desire for the union between men and women: the family should be based on indissoluble love. And if later Moses permitted divorce, he did so because of the human and spiritual coarseness of the people of his time. Not only does Jesus not accept the interpretation of their rabbis, but he condemns the practice of divorce that the Pharisees practiced on a more or less large scale. Jesus reinforces the primacy of love in human relationships, including between a man and a woman when they unite in marriage. Their love cannot be dissolved. Also at the time, this unbreakable bond seemed like a heavy burden. It seems even heavier today in a cultural climate where any prospect of stability seems impossible. But Jesus continues and addresses the concept of self-control chosen for the kingdom of heaven: there are those who make themselves eunuchs "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." The choice not to marry in order to dedicate oneself totally to God does not discredit marriage, but it doubtlessly emphasizes the radical nature of the choice for God. That means that some people choose to demonstrate through their very existence that God alone is enough. It is a choice that is connected to one of the spiritual dimensions of the Church: it is not bound to anyone else; Jesus alone is enough for it. In this sense, being celibate for the Lord has an extraordinary value, not because it demonstrates a capacity for sacrifice, but because it demonstrates a radical choice for the Lord.
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
