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
James 4,13-17
Well now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are going to spend a year there, trading, and make some money.' You never know what will happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. Instead of this, you should say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we shall still be alive to do this or that.' But as it is, how boastful and loud -- mouthed you are! Boasting of this kind is always wrong. Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and does not do it commits a sin.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The presumptuous security of the disciple is great foolishness, because it does not take into consideration the fragility and powerlessness of which we are made. The sentence reported by James was probably the sentence of the rich who, like our generation were afraid of stopping and understanding their fragility and weakness. Like the fool in the Gospel parable, they were seeking their own interest, they relied on it for their happiness and they thought they could use their lives and goods as they pleased. No, life is a gift from God’s hands and has meaning not in fretting but in losing oneself in love. James suggests that only God can give security and to Him alone should we entrust our lives. A human being, far from being able to decide his future, does not even know what life has in store for him. Our paraded security and foolish superficiality only reveal our stupidity and blindness. "What is your life?" James asks, and his response is severe: "For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." He is referring not only to the vanity of life, but also to the poverty of humanity, and he is speaking in particular to those who do not seriously reflect on their existence. James invites his readers to turn to God and trust in the One who alone can give security. Following the Lord frees us from our toils and our restless "busyness." The words of Gospel regarding entrusting ourselves in the Lord’s hands who provides everything, either small or big, as Jesus says in the Sermon of the Mount come to mind (see Mt 6:25-34). James warns the disciples against presumption and pride in the same way that Paul did with the arrogant Corinthians, "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?" (1 Cor 4:7). Believers entrust themselves totally to God and put their present and their future into God’s hands.
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
