Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Judith 7,19-32
The Israelites called on the Lord their God, dispirited because the enemy had surrounded them and cut all line of retreat.
For thirty-four days the Assyrian army, infantry, chariots, cavalrymen, had them surrounded. Every water-jar the inhabitants of Bethulia had was empty,
their storage-wells were drying up; on no day could a man drink his fill, since their water was rationed.
Their little children pined away, the women and young men grew weak with thirst; they collapsed in the streets and gateways of the town; they had no strength left.
Young men, women, children, the whole people thronged clamouring round Uzziah and the chief men of the town, shouting in the presence of the assembled elders,
'May God be judge between you and us! For you have done us great harm, by not suing for peace with the Assyrians.
And now there is no one to help us. God has delivered us into their hands to be prostrated before them in thirst and utter helplessness.
Call them in at once; hand the whole town over to be sacked by Holofernes' men and all his army.
After all, we should be much better off as their booty than we are now; no doubt we shall be enslaved, but at least we shall be alive and not see our little ones dying before our eyes or our wives and children perishing.
By heaven and earth and by our God, the Lord of our fathers, who is punishing us for our sins and the sins of our ancestors, we implore you to take this course now, today.'
Bitter lamentations rose from the whole assembly, and they all cried loudly to the Lord God.
Then Uzziah spoke to them, 'Take heart, brothers! Let us hold out five days more. By then the Lord our God will take pity on us, for he will not desert us altogether.
At the end of this time, if no help is forthcoming, I shall do as you have said.'
With that he dismissed the people to their various quarters. The men went to man the walls and towers of the town, sending the women and children home. The town was full of despondency.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In these first chapters the book of Judith presents the relentless advance of evil, personified by Holofernes’ army which should pave the way to adoration of Nebuchadnezzar as the "god" of the earth. Evil appears to grow until its climax, until it finds its way into the very people of Israel. It is now thirty-four days that the city has been under siege and the food provisions are spent. The pangs of hunger and thirst are felt, and the women and children are the first to be struck down. The sight of the army surrounding the city causes discouragement. The days pass and fear and dismay grow in the hearts of the people. Trust in God falters and the people see nothing before them but death. In effect, the failure to trust in the Lord is the beginning of resignation to slavery. Uzziah and the other elders begin to say that it is better to be slaves of Nebuchadnezzar than to see little ones and women die. Certainly, we can ask ourselves where trust in God and hope in the Lord is now. Now that the danger is imminent, now that the people see the enemy surrounding the city, hope in salvation falters. But resignation to the power of evil is the beginning of defeat. And yet it is precisely when everything is wanting that the firmness of faith and the strength of hope is manifested. God has tried the faith of his people, but their faith falters. But trust in God is the virtue of the weak, of the poor, of the desperate. As long as we put trust in ourselves, in the strength of numbers, in the strength of health, in the power of money, we can easily forget God. The poor show us what we truly are: weak men and women who depend on others, and on God, for everything. Let us look at them as they put out their hands: they are our teachers in faith. When we are like them, needful of everything, let us remember to implore the Lord and not resign ourselves to the power of the evil one. It is true, at times it can seem that God is silent, or that he sleeps on a cushion as happened with Jesus when they crossed the lake while the disciples’ boat was overwhelmed by the waves. Jesus scolded the disciples: "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" (Mk 4:40). True hope is to trust in the Lord even if at times he seems to be absent. It is true that the people of Bethulia have waited, have done penance, have prayed and God seems not to have heard. In effect, in the life of the Church and of the world there is also the mystery of God’s silence. And we can all experience a feeling of disorientation and emptiness. But perhaps God is silent also because the believers do not put all their trust in Him. They prefer slavery to Nebuchadnezzar to complete trust in God. Evil seems to have reached its peak in conquering the hearts and the minds of the people of Israel: for, they choose to abandon God rather than to die. In truth the believers’ salvation is through death. Thus, Abraham got his son back, a foreshadowing of what would happen with Jesus. Believers are called to die to themselves and to their own security, in order to rely only on God. To the famished people of Bethulia who fall in the street from starvation, there could remain a faith which is also trust in a God who seems to abandon his people to extermination. It is precisely this faith which could have had the strength to obtain the miracle. This page of Scripture shows us the radicality of God’s love. Even Uzziah’s words are marked by unbelief: "Let us hold out for five days more ... But if these days pass by, and no help comes for us, I will do as you say." Even in the head of the people faith seems to falter. The religious life of God’s people, at this moment, was harboured only in the heart of a woman, Judith. Judith, a poor and weak woman, fully trusts in the strength of God, who loves his people and who will once more deliver them from slavery.
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
