Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
John 11,45-54
Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what he did, believed in him,
but some of them went to the Pharisees to tell them what Jesus had done.
Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. 'Here is this man working all these signs,' they said, 'and what action are we taking?
If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and suppress the Holy Place and our nation.'
One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, 'You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all;
you fail to see that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish.'
He did not speak in his own person, but as high priest of that year he was prophesying that Jesus was to die for the nation-
and not for the nation only, but also to gather together into one the scattered children of God.
From that day onwards they were determined to kill him.
So Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but left the district for a town called Ephraim, in the country bordering on the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This Gospel passage, which immediately follows the resurrection of Lazarus, is meant to prepare the reader for the celebration of Holy Week: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The High Priests understood that the extraordinary miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection threatened to cause Jesus’ movement to grow out of control which would make their power over the people vanish. The same thing had happened at Jesus’ birth when Herod tried to kill the baby because he was afraid for his throne. This is why they try to stop Jesus in every way. It is Caiaphas who said, in the midst of the assembly: "It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed." He did not know it, but he was giving the truest and deepest meaning of the mystery of Jesus, the true saviour of the world. The evangelist notes that "He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God." With Jesus’ death the walls that divided the peoples fell and history made a new start, moving towards the unity of the nations. Solemnly, they made the decision to kill Jesus. Once again Jesus withdrew and went to Ephraim with his disciples. It was the time of prayer and reflection for that small community with their teacher. It was needed to grow in communion, and Jesus knew well how much it was necessary. No doubt he spent a lot of energy to teach them the way of love. And yet, he was by now very well known and therefore he tried to hide. However, the desire of people to see, talk and touch him was so great that many Passover pilgrims would come to the temple to see Jesus. This desire of the crowds to see Jesus is an invitation for us in these days not to detach ourselves from this teacher "who has done everything well."
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
