Memory of the virgin Mary, venerated as Our Lady of Lujàn in Argentina.
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Memory of the virgin Mary, venerated as Our Lady of Lujàn in Argentina.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 15,18-21
If the world hates you, you must realise that it hated me before it hated you.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because my choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you.
Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.
But it will be on my account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the one who sent me.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Evangelist John contrasts the love that binds the disciples together to the hatred that the world feels for them. There is in fact a profound and radical irreconcilability between the gratuitous love that defines the true disciple of Jesus and the worldly logic that always seeks profit - or at least an exchange - in every situation. This does not mean that we should somehow feel removed from the reality around us or that we should strive to separate ourselves from it completely. We continue to be citizens of this world, but, as an ancient Christian text known as Letter to Diognetus says, at the same time we are foreigners to its mentality; we are in the world, but as pilgrims who walk towards the goal of a different and better reality. Consequently, the only way for us to know whether we are children of God or of the world’s mentality, is to scrupulously examine ourselves, our habits, and our normal way of doing things with the Lord’s teachings. We can only be a sign of contradiction for the world if we walk on the path of evangelical love, not because of any presumed originality of our own, but because we are bound to Jesus, who was sent by the Father to draw us to him. Jesus goes on to say to the disciples of then and now: "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also." The disciple who lives out the Gospel becomes a sign of the Lord himself. Those who welcome the disciple and imitate his example welcome and imitate Jesus himself. And those who despise the disciple despise Jesus himself. This is what was revealed to Paul on the road to Damascus. The Lord said to him: "Saul, why do you persecute me?" The close bond between Jesus and his disciples, including us, can be seen clearly in this question.
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
