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
Matthew 6, 7-15
'In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.
Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
So you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One.
'Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours;
but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus is speaking about prayer and urges the disciples not to waste words when they pray as the Gentiles do, thinking that they will be able to persuade God with a torrent of language. Jesus most likely refers to magic formulas used in exoteric rites, in which the formulas were more important than the attitude of the heart. Jesus wants his disciples to understand that the essence of prayer is putting our trust in God, confident that God will not abandon us and will give us what we need. Obviously Jesus can say this because he knows well the Father who is in heaven and knows how his heart is great and that everything comes from Him. He clarifies to the disciples: "" And at this point Jesus gives yesterday’s and today’s disciples the splendid prayer known as the "Our Father." An old wise Christian - Tertullian - said that this prayer is in a certain way "the synthesis of the entire Gospel." He is right. We see it well in the first word, " "Abba" (Dad). This is the term Jesus places on our lips to turn to the creator of heaven and earth. May be our smallness does not allow us to understand the complete turnaround that this word involves as it makes us "children" in the relationship with God. Yes, the Lord for us is, firstly, the Father. Certainly he is the creator of heaven and earth, the Absolute, the Almighty and much more. And yet, he is first of all "Father" and he loved us to the point of sending us his own Son. It is right to do God’s will and not ours, as we are always inclined to do. He is good with us much more than what we are able to be. Jesus also urges us to ask for bread, the bread of every day, so we might touch the concreteness of God’s love with our hands. He then puts a grave request on our lips: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." It seems harsh and unrealistic to make human forgiveness the model ("as we also...") for divine forgiveness, but in the following verses, we find an explanation for this petition: "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." This language is incomprehensible for a society like ours, in which forgiveness is truly rare, but perhaps this is why we need to learn how to pray the "Our Father." Thinking of the many temptation that life may present us, Jesus - and here the translation of the text is clearer than the traditional formula - makes us insist in asking: "Do not abandon us in temptation, but deliver us from evil." The Lord is truly a Father who is at our side. Sometimes even the dearest friends may abandon us, but this never happens with God.
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
