Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Ecclesiastes 5,7-11
If in a province you see the poor oppressed, fair judgement and justice violated, do not be surprised, for over every official there watches a higher official, and over these, higher officials still.
But what the land yields is for the benefit of all, a king is served by the fields.
No one who loves money ever has enough, no one who loves luxury has any income; this, too, is futile.
Where goods abound, parasites abound: where is the owner's profit, apart from feasting his eyes?
The labourer's sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep at all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Qohelet, who has already dealt with some attitudes that corrupt social life, now pauses to consider the economic-administrative dimension of the state structure as a pyramid, from the centre to the periphery, which oppresses and exploits the weak and poor. Before such corruption of political administration, Qohelet, unlike the prophets which would have reacted violently, urges that we not marvel: it is a given that there is corruption. It is no use in any case to hypothesize a return to a pre-state economy where each one thought only of his own affairs. The problem, in fact, lies not in the system in place, but rather in man himself and his insatiable covetousness. In any political system the root of evil lies in the insatiable desire to possess, for which one never has sufficient receivables. For the one who is a slave to money and riches, income is obviously never enough, and desire for it is never quenched (cf. 1:8; 4:8). Therefore, it is in the human heart that we must seek the causes of oppression and injustice, not first of all in the organization of society. The thirst for money and riches too is "hebel," a breath of wind. Qohelet warns of the danger that money and riches represent for humans. Even if they are administered magnanimously, parasites are seen to grow, "lovers of wealth," those who let themselves be seduced by money. The soberness of the worker is better than the satiety of the rich. The former is not agitated by worries and does not suffer from insomnia, while the "satiety" of the rich is nothing but covetousness never satisfied.
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
