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
Ephesians 1,1-10
Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's holy people, faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before him in love, marking us out for himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. Such was his purpose and good pleasure, to the praise of the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight. He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, according to his good pleasure which he determined beforehand in Christ, for him to act upon when the times had run their course: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today’s passage begins the Letter to the Ephesians. Paul presents himself as "an apostle of Christ Jesus," that is, sent by the Risen One, serving the Gospel. In various letters, as well as in this one, the apostle repeats that his charisma is not to be credited to some merits or special qualities of his. Indeed, his poverty he writes that he is "the very least of all the saints" (3:8) - is a guarantee of the authenticity of the message that has been entrusted to him. God has shown His strength with the "nothing" of the apostle. He calls Christians of Ephesus, "the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus," as he had also called the Colossians (see Col 1:2), meaning that they too have been chosen by God to be his "holy temple" (2:21). The term "saint" (the Apostle uses the plural), does not indicate a moral dimension of the Christians of Ephesus. It refers, rather, to an objective condition: Christians are "saints" because their life is offered to God. It is a sanctity derived not individually, but as a Church body, as a community loved by God and chosen to communicate the Gospel to the world. It is the community that is holy, and every single member of it is a saint because he or she is part of the community and shares in its life. It is not surprising that the Pauline letters do not use of the word "saint" in the singular, except in Philippians 4:21 where it acquires a collective value. We are saints together, because we are removed from the world of sin and placed in the life of Christ, the source and centre of communion. As members of the Church we are the Body of Christ. Obviously, if holiness is the grace received at the beginning of the life of the baptized, it requires a behaviour that conforms to what Christians have become. From being saints, we need to behave accordingly.
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
