Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
2 Kings 4,1-7
The wife of a member of the prophetic brotherhood appealed to Elisha. 'Your servant my husband is dead,' she said, 'and you know how your servant revered Yahweh. A creditor has now come to take my two children and make them his slaves.'
Elisha said, 'What can I do for you? Tell me, what have you got in the house?' 'Your servant has nothing in the house,' she replied, 'except a flask of oil.'
Then he said, 'Go outside and borrow jars from all your neighbours, empty jars and not too few.
When you come back, shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour the oil into all these jars, putting each aside when it is full.'
So she left him; and she shut the door on herself and her sons; they passed her the jars and she went on pouring.
When the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Pass me another jar.' 'There are no more,' he replied. Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man of God, who said, 'Go and sell the oil and redeem your pledge; you and your children can live on the remainder.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Chapter four reports several miracles performed by Elisha that are similar to those already performed by Elijah. We could say that the Word of God is continuing its work in human history. The first miracle is the multiplication of oil for a widow whose husband was a member of the community of prophets. With complete faith, she turns to the prophet and asks him to help her pay a debt, because otherwise she will be forced by her creditor to sell her children as slaves. When the prophet asks her what she has in her house, she responds that she only has a jar full of oil. Her answer echoes many scenes in the gospels in which those who ask for help are clearly materially poor but rich in their ability to ask.. Moved by the faith of this woman who does not resign herself but puts her faith in the prophet’s strength, Elisha prepares a miracle for her. He does not do anything magical, but asks her to go and gather the empty jars from her neighbours. Then he tells her to go into her house and close the door behind her. It is the same exhortation that Jesus will make the disciples when he invites them to pray in secret: "But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret" (Mt 6:6). The empty jars are immediately filled to the brim with oil. After she sees what has happened, the widow goes back to the prophet, because now she trusts in his word completely. She knows that she can put her faith in him. The prophet tells her to sell the oil produced by the miracle. With the money from the sale not only can she pay the debt, she has also provided for her and her children’s future. We can compare this scene to the miracle of preaching that fills our cold, empty hearts with the love and strength of the Lord. Not only do we find salvation ourselves, but we also become wellsprings of love and mercy for others. All that is asked of us is to obey Word of God, like the widow who saw her life and the lives of her children saved.
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
