Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Ecclesiastes 9,13-18
Here is another example of the wisdom I have acquired under the sun and it strikes me as important:
There was once a small town, with only a few inhabitants; a mighty king made war on it, laying siege to it and building great siege-works round it.
But there was in that town a poverty-stricken sage who by his wisdom saved the town. No one remembered this poor man afterwards.
So I say: Wisdom is more effective than brute force, but the wisdom of a poor man is not valued: no one listens to what he has to say.
The calm words of the wise make themselves heard above the shouts of someone commanding an army of fools.
Wisdom is worth more than weapons of war, but a single sin undoes a deal of good.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
With a little parable, Qohelet shows the "weak strength" of wisdom (vv. 13-16). The little city, besieged by a "great king," is saved by the wisdom of a poor man who, however, was wise. Qohelet’s clear teaching is that wisdom has a power superior to that of politics or weapons. It is a "weak" power precisely in the sense that it is not tied to worldly means. And, in effect, it is often despised by humans: "Yet the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heeded" (v. 16). In truth, it is the "strongest" of the means of this world. It is a teaching that crosses many pages of Scripture. In Proverbs, for example, we read: "One wise person went up a city of warriors and brought down the stronghold in which they trusted" (21:22). But humans cannot in any case understand the weak strength of wisdom. Qohelet notes that: "no one remembered that poor man" (v. 15). No one showed gratitude for this extraordinary action. Despite the inability to adequately appreciate who is wise, Qohelet reaffirms: "Wisdom is better than might" (v. 16). As a comment to this parable, there follows a proverb that sounds something like this: "The words of the wise, calmly said, are more worthy to be heard than the shouts of the king of madmen." We often hear the one who shouts louder and not the one who speaks more wisely. With another proverb, the author wants to show the ease with which we can thwart wisdom. Wisdom is strong in itself. It is more powerful than weapons of war, notes Qohelet. But we can thwart it with our foolishness and our superficiality.
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
