Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Nehemiah 7,1-7.61-72
Now, when the wall had been rebuilt and I had hung the doors, the gatekeepers (the singers and the Levites) were then appointed.
I entrusted the administration of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, and to Hananiah the commander of the citadel, for he was a more trustworthy, God-fearing man than many others.
I said to them, 'The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened until the sun gets hot; and the doors must be shut and barred before it begins to go down. Detail guards from the residents of Jerusalem, each to his post, in front of his own house.'
The city was large and spacious but the population was small, and the houses had not been rebuilt.
My God then inspired me to assemble the nobles, the officials and the people for the purpose of taking a census by families. I discovered the genealogical register of those who had returned in the first group, and there I found entered:
These are the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the Exile, those whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.
They were the ones who arrived with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
The following, who came from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addon and Immer, could not prove that their families and ancestry were of Israelite origin:
the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda: six hundred and forty-two.
And among the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai -- who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, whose name he adopted.
These had looked for their entries in the official genealogies but were not to be found there, and were hence disqualified from the priesthood.
Consequently, His Excellency forbade them to eat any of the consecrated food until a priest appeared who could consult urim and thummim.
The whole assembly numbered forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty people,
not counting their slaves and maidservants to the number of seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. They also had two hundred and forty-five male and female singers.
They had four hundred and thirty-five camels and six thousand seven hundred and twenty donkeys.
A certain number of heads of families contributed to the work. His Excellency contributed one thousand gold drachmas, fifty bowls, and thirty priestly robes to the fund.
And heads of families gave twenty thousand gold drachmas and two thousand two hundred silver minas to the work fund.
The gifts made by the rest of the people amounted to twenty thousand gold drachmas, two thousand silver minas, and sixty-seven priestly robes.
The priests, the Levites and some of the people lived in Jerusalem and thereabouts; the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple slaves in their appropriate towns; and all the other Israelites, in their own towns. Now when the seventh month came round -- the Israelites being in their towns-
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Only at the beginning of this chapter does the building of the city walls reach its conclusion with the putting in place of the gates and the designation of various government offices within the city and temple. A precise list follows, with names and numbers, of Jerusalem’s inhabitants, which reflects with some variations the one we find in chapter two of Ezra. We could instinctively ask what importance and value to attribute to a list of names, which moreover repeats a list already generally known. We must consider the significance that a "name" has in the Bible as regards genealogies, or rather, the history of the people of Israel. Names and genealogies, in fact, are not simply lists, but rather indicate continuity in history and even the meaning it takes on, when it remains in the seedbed of the blessing with which God created human beings. Nehemiah means to manifest the totality of the people, the unity of a community made up of diverse peoples who seem to even have different rights on account of birth certificate issues (lost records: verses 61-64). Furthermore, the repetition of names already listed in the book of Ezra (chap. 2) intends to enable the participation of all those returned from exile in the feast, which ratifies the restored unity of the people around the sole authority of the word of God and which will be celebrated in the following chapter. The rebuilding of the walls thus acquires its significance for all Israel. In this is expressed the worth of a community who lives the joy of communion and the gladness of having found again its identity as a people freed by the Lord and led back to its origins. We cannot help but to see here the roots and the sense of every community which, even in the diversity of its members, shares in the sole source that keeps it alive and allows it to taste the joy of brotherly life: the presence of God, which unites us, and of his word, which teaches how to live.
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
