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
Nehemiah 9,24-29
The children entered and took possession of the country and before them you subdued the country's inhabitants, the Canaanites, whom you put at their mercy, with their kings and the peoples of the country, for them to treat as they pleased;
they captured fortified towns and a fertile countryside, they took possession of houses stocked with all kinds of goods, of storage-wells ready-hewn, of vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in profusion; so they ate, were full, grew fat and revelled in your great goodness.
'But they grew disobedient, rebelled against you and thrust your law behind their backs; they slaughtered your prophets who had reproved them to bring them back to you, and committed monstrous impieties.
So you put them at the mercy of their enemies who oppressed them. But when they were being oppressed and called to you, you heard them from heaven and because of your great compassion you gave them deliverers who rescued them from their oppressors' clutches.
But once at peace again, again they did what was wrong before you; so you put them at the mercy of their enemies who then became their rulers. When they called to you again, you heard them from heaven and, because of your compassion, rescued them many times.
You warned them, to bring them back to your law, but they became arrogant, did not obey your commandments and sinned against your rules, in whose observance is life; they turned a stubborn shoulder, were obstinate, and disobeyed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The passage of the book of Nehemiah takes us to the end of the journey through which God has led Israel to the freedom of the land. The language used by the author is very similar to that of the books of Deuteronomy and Judges. Once again, we find the paradox of the Lord’s unconditional love despite the disobedience and rebellion of the people of Israel: "But then they disobeyed, they rebelled against you, they cast your law behind their back, they killed your prophets....." Israel continues to refuse to hear God when he speaks, and this happens each time that it gets comfortable in the well-being and tranquillity that it has achieved, moreover with the Lord’s indispensable aid. Israel had obtained what it desired, and its people had become sated with the goods of the land ("they possessed houses full of every good"); all this had led them to forget that it had all been God’s free gift, certainly not due to their merit. The Psalm says it well: "Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish" (49:12). Riches lead one to forget God, because they make us think we are masters of things, rather than teaching us gratitude for all that has been received from life. The Bible does not condemn riches, rather they are seen as the result of divine blessing, but it guards us against a foolish possession of things and repeatedly invites us to trust in God. Jesus himself emphasized it often when speaking to his disciples: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing" (Lk 12:22-23). The Lord admonishes us, as he did with his people, so that we listen to his word, which makes us live: "And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, by the observance of which a person shall live." How many times have we experienced the truth of these words! Truly God’s word makes us live. It is the only source of joy and well-being. We should however be alert, since it is easy to be deceived by a materialistic society in which what counts is what one has and one lives in fear of losing one’s own well-being. Let us entrust ourselves to the Lord, aware that he does not abandon those who trust in him and listen to him.
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
