We remember Yaguine and Fodé, two boys 15 an d14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died because of cold in 1999 while they we trying to fly to study in Europe hidden in the cargo hold of an airplane. Read more
We remember Yaguine and Fodé, two boys 15 an d14 years old from Guinea Conakry, who died because of cold in 1999 while they we trying to fly to study in Europe hidden in the cargo hold of an airplane.
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
Jeremiah 13, 1-14
Yahweh said this to me, 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.'
And so, as Yahweh had ordered, I bought a waistcloth and put it round my waist.
A second time the word of Yahweh came to me,
'Take the waistcloth that you have bought and are wearing round your waist. Up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock.'
So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as Yahweh had ordered me.
A long time later, Yahweh said to me, 'Up, go to the Euphrates and fetch the waistcloth I ordered you to hide there.'
So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And there was the waistcloth ruined, no use for anything.
Then the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,
'Yahweh says this, "In the same way I shall ruin the pride of Judah, the immense pride of Jerusalem.
This evil people, these people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow their own stubborn inclinations and run after other gods, serving and worshipping them -- this people will become like this waistcloth, no good for anything.
For just as a waistcloth clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah cling to me, Yahweh declares, to be my people, my glory, my honour and my pride. But they have not listened."
'You will also say this to them, "Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Any jug can be filled with wine." And if they answer you, "Do you think we do not know that any jug can be filled with wine?"
you are to say, "Yahweh says this: Look, I shall fill all the inhabitants of this country, the kings who occupy the throne of David, the priests, the prophets and all the citizens of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Then I shall smash them one against the other, parents and children all together, Yahweh declares. Mercilessly, relentlessly, pitilessly, I shall destroy them." '
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Lord asks Jeremiah to perform a series of actions as a sign of what is happening. Words and signs often accompany the lives of the prophets, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But even in the Gospels signs accompany Jesus’ words. The Gospel of John describes Jesus’ life as a collection of words and signs. Indeed, we are called to listen but also to see. The Second Vatican Council spoke of “the signs of the times” that we believers are called to understand by reading the Word of God, which is like the alphabet that gives us their meaning. The sign that Jeremiah must perform is very simple: hide his loincloth in a crack near the Euphrates Rivers (meaning that Jeremiah is in exile with his people in Babylon) and then to take it back after it has been ruined and “good for nothing”: “Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.” Pride does not produce anything; it reduces life to nothing, just as Jerusalem was destroyed. If we do not listen to God as he speaks and we only follow ourselves, convinced of our own reasoning, we will never produce anything good. Pride is not only the origin of sin, but also of a vain and fruitless life. But what is the meaning of the loincloth? The Lord explains this to Jeremiah: “For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.” The Lord asks us to cling to him, to live our lives with him, to be his people, his praise, and his glory. God loves us so much that he lowers himself to be with us. He himself does not live for himself, but he wants us to delight in a covenant of love with Him. We could say that we are his pride.
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
