Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Thessalonians 4, 1-12
Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus; we instructed you how to live in the way that pleases God, and you are so living; but make more progress still.
You are well aware of the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.
God wills you all to be holy. He wants you to keep away from sexual immorality,
and each one of you to know how to control his body in a way that is holy and honourable,
not giving way to selfish lust like the nations who do not acknowledge God.
He wants nobody at all ever to sin by taking advantage of a brother in these matters; the Lord always pays back sins of that sort, as we told you before emphatically.
God called us to be holy, not to be immoral;
in other words, anyone who rejects this is rejecting not human authority, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
As for brotherly love, there is no need to write to you about that, since you have yourselves learnt from God to love one another,
and in fact this is how you treat all the brothers throughout the whole of Macedonia. However, we do urge you, brothers, to go on making even greater progress
and to make a point of living quietly, attending to your own business and earning your living, just as we told you to,
so that you may earn the respect of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul begins this part of the letter invoking Jesus’ authority. In his name he demonstrates what "pleases God" (4:1), what is the "will of God" (4:3; 5:18). He presents the exhortation as a prayer; this is how decisive he considers it to be. The Thessalonians already know how to behave in a way pleasing to God: the apostle himself had shown them when he had been with them, by example and by teaching. They should persevere on this path, indeed; excel all the more as they walk it, until they are holy. God’s will is that we be holy, that is, that we belong wholly to Him, therefore far from the world and loosed from its bonds. Already in the Old Testament God required holiness: "For I am the Lord your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. ... For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy" (Lev 11:44 ff). What God wants of us has never been more validly formulated. In the New Testament, however, holiness no longer consists of sacrificial offerings or the observance of laws, as the Jews thought, but rather in receiving the Holy Spirit into one’s own heart. In this way, the believers are transformed into new beings who live and conduct themselves according to the Spirit. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to behave in ways that respect the dignity of one’s own body and the sanctity of marriage. It is necessary to leave behind the pagan-like mentality which makes us slaves of ourselves and of our own instincts. He then warns against thirst for gain and the covetousness that leads one to drown out others and humiliate them. God, the apostle writes, "Did not call us to impurity but in holiness" (4:7), in other words, to abandon egocentric and violent behaviours in order to turn to God. Therefore, those who disdain such precepts disdain God himself, while those who remain in "holiness" dwell in love. This is why the apostle writes, "Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more," (4:9-10). If love is the Spirit poured out by God into the hearts of the believers, the Spirit himself is the teacher within who guides every disciple. Brotherly love, in fact, is not a human precept; it is the new commandment which Jesus gave to the disciples of every age as the distinctive sign of their relationship with him. And it is a gift which should be lived in an even broader way. No one can rest on the laurels of the love he already has; this begs to grow and expand. The apostle finally exhorts the Thessalonians to lead a serene life, one given over to the will of God, and to mark themselves out by a life that is "proper" vis-à-vis strangers. The statement in Acts regarding the first Christians of Jerusalem comes to mind, they "had the goodwill of all the people" (Acts 2:47). We can take to heart Paul’s other exhortation to the Corinthians: "Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved" (1 Cor 10:32 ff).
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
