Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 2,14-21
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them in a loud voice: 'Men of Judaea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, make no mistake about this, but listen carefully to what I say.
These men are not drunk, as you imagine; why, it is only the third hour of the day.
On the contrary, this is what the prophet was saying:
In the last days -- the Lord declares -- I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, your old people dream dreams.
Even on the slaves, men and women, shall I pour out my Spirit.
I will show portents in the sky above and signs on the earth below.
The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes, that great and terrible Day.
And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them. This sentence starts the passage of the Acts that tells the first sermon of Peter. The apostle is not alone, he is surrounded by the Eleven. They are all standing alike to form one icon. It is the image of the Church in its universality. It has before us the entire world. It is the archetype of the Church. Each Christian community, even the smallest, must shape itself on this image. There is no preference given to individuals, even Peter is with the Eleven. There is no localism, the community of the believers has always the entire world in its heart and in front of its eyes. Peter does not speak on his own, but for everyone. He addresses the crowd in a loud voice. He does not have to proclaim his personal message, but that of the entire community, or better that he received from the Lord Jesus himself. The crowd that filled the square was coming from all over the world. Seeing the faces in this crowd, so different from one another because of age and country, the apostle remembered the ancient words of the prophet Joel. The prophet’s dream had become reality: Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. How can we not think of today’s youth who no longer have dreams, and of the elderly who cannot regard with serenity the time remaining for them to live? How can we remain still, resigned and afraid in front of a world like this at the beginning of this new millennium that no longer knows how to dream big and raise its eyes from its small horizons? So many of us satisfy ourselves with our own small dream and realization and all of us still are as slaves to the small-minded and sad realism of daily life. We need urgently to come again to dream of a better world, a world of peace, where evil and injustice may be overthrown and love is able to reign. This is the reason for the mystery of Jesus’ coming into the world, the mystery of his death and resurrection. The entire world needs to rise to a new life. Not only the young and the elderly need the resurrection, so also do the children, men, and women. With his words, Peter returns to offer us this dream. And yet, it is no longer just a dream. With Jesus it has become a reality in which all are able to participate. The task of every disciple and Christian community is to welcome this dream into their hearts and to witness to it with 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
