In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the Community of Sant'Egidio prays for the sick.
Memorial of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
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In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the Community of Sant’Egidio prays for the sick.
Memorial of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
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
1 Corinthians 5,1-8
It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, immorality of a kind that is not found even among gentiles: that one of you is living with his stepmother. And you so filled with your own self-importance! It would have been better if you had been grieving bitterly, so that the man who has done this thing were turned out of the community. For my part, however distant I am physically, I am present in spirit and have already condemned the man who behaved in this way, just as though I were present in person. When you have gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus, with the presence of my spirit, and in the power of our Lord Jesus, hand such a man over to Satan, to be destroyed as far as natural life is concerned, so that on the Day of the Lord his spirit may be saved. Your self-satisfaction is ill founded. Do you not realise that only a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Throw out the old yeast so that you can be the fresh dough, unleavened as you are. For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ; let us keep the feast, then, with none of the old yeast and no leavening of evil and wickedness, but only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After the first four chapters, which form an extended introduction to the Letter, Paul now responds to several issues concerning the life of the community. We can see from the apostle’s words how strong his bond to the community of Corinth was. He decisively takes on the case of incest that had occurred in the community and needed to be resolved. This passage urges us to rediscover our responsibility to correct our brothers and sisters, something that is often disregarded, either out of laziness or disinterest. Correction requires us to become responsible for our brothers and sisters. It requires long and patient "work" which does not exclude firmness to try to change the heart of the one who has erred and to promote the growth of the community. The seriousness of the sin, as in this case, requires an equally serious decision in order to uproot the danger. But none of this is possible without love, without a paternal love that knows how to correct. Unfortunately, we are sometimes guided by coldness, or worse, indifference. And so we become disinterested in our brothers and sisters and make hasty or cold decisions. The apostle Paul teaches us to think about the salvation of those who are guilty of serious sins. The harsh judgment made about the sinner was made "so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord" (v. 5). Paul’s first words are a reproach, because this weed was not pulled up quickly and decisively. Instead the community contented itself with a few words of blame. According to the apostle, the community is responsible for the holiness of all of its members: therefore it is its responsibility the responsibility of the whole community and of each individual member to fraternally correct its brothers and sisters in order to drive out evil and build the one body of the Lord according to the spirit of the Gospel. This is the meaning of the fraternal correction of which we read in the Gospel, which reveals concrete solidarity among the members of the one family of God. The image of bad yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, helps us understand the scrupulous attention we need to give to rooting out evil. Instead, we need to choose the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" to help the community of believers grow according to God’s plan. And, once the community has been leavened, it needs in turn to leaven the entire city.
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
