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Memory of the apostles
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Memory of the apostles

Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist and author of the Acts of the Apostles. According to tradition, he was a physician and a painter. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the apostles
Friday, October 18

Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist and author of the Acts of the Apostles. According to tradition, he was a physician and a painter.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 1,1-4

Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have reached their fulfilment among us, as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Today the church remembers Luke, author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. The words we have heard are the beginning of Luke's Gospel account. From them, already we catch a glimpse of the reverence with which Luke approaches the Word of God. He is far from seeking to promote himself or make his presence noticed. He does not even state his name. He certainly belongs to the educated class of his time and knows the great historical and literary works. He however considers himself a minister at the service of the Word that he wants to transmit with absolute fidelity to all those who, like him, may have not known Jesus personally, but who have experienced him in faith within the Christian community. Some affirm that he may be one of the seventy-two or one of the disciples of Emmaus. He is also said to have painted the first portrait of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Church, receiving this work of his among the holy Books, has recognized in him a believer inspired by God who tried to connect the Christian message with the culture of his time. Luke, mentioned in the second Letter to Timothy (4:11), collects in his writings the witness of the apostles to the Lord and to the first communities, especially those founded by Paul, of whom he had become a follower. In his Gospel, Luke communicates to us the growth of the community of disciples, who were attracted by Jesus' mercy, by his limitless compassion for the poor and sick, no one excluded. Luke attests to the miracle of this merciful love that still today, also through his written work, continues to heal the hearts of many. His Gospel, which reports on what Jesus said and did, and the Acts of the Apostles, which follow the events of the Christian community from Jerusalem to Rome, are a living witness of the history of the Church, which, moved by the Holy Spirit, has no fear of trusting in the Lord and of communicating the good news until the ends of the earth.

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!