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
John 3,31-36
He who comes from above is above all others; he who is of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven
bears witness to the things he has seen and heard, but his testimony is not accepted by anybody;
though anyone who does accept his testimony is attesting that God is true,
since he whom God has sent speaks God's own words, for God gives him the Spirit without reserve.
The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to his hands.
Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: God's retribution hangs over him.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This Gospel passage that we have heard continues Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus and, once again, reiterates the centrality of having faith in Jesus. Jesus invites Nicodemus to lift his gaze up from earthly things, from his inveterate habits, from his convictions, even his religious ones, and to look upwards. The Gospel also makes this invitation to us who all too often become comfortable living a banal and lazy life, resigning ourselves to a sad present void of a hopeful future for us and for others. The words spoken to Nicodemus are a clear invitation to direct his gaze toward Jesus: he is "from above, from heaven" and "is above all." Jesus is the true hope for us and for the world. He came down from heaven to be with us and to speak to us about his life with the Father: "He," Jesus says speaking in the third person, "testifies to what he has seen and heard," revealing God’s mystery, which otherwise would remain impenetrable to us. Revealing God’s mystery is the Son’s mission. He did not come to assert himself or to present personal projects to enact, as each one of us is disposed to do, but to communicate to us "words of God" and to give all of us "the Spirit without measure." This is why we should feel respect and be devoted to the Holy Scripture and, in particular, to the Gospels that contain "the words of Jesus" and that are the key to reading the whole of Holy Scripture. Every day, we are called to listen to these words and to meditate on them to the point of making them our own. The Biblewhose culmination is the Gospelsis not just any book to us: the words it contains are "inspired," that is, they are filled with the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the reading of sacred Scripture can only happen under the impulse of the Spirit that is its true author. And the Spirit gave itself to us "without measure" precisely so that we may have the eyes of our mind and our heart enlightened by this light. The words of Holy Scripture, therefore, must not be listened to out of vain curiosity, but with religious attention so that they may enter into our heart and help us to change our lives and the life of the world. The exhortation to "believe in the Son" does not mean anything else but to have the Gospel in our heart as the Word of salvation. Whoever listens to them and keeps them in his or her heart "has eternal life."
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
