Memory of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. They welcomed the Lord at home.
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Memory of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. They welcomed the Lord at home.
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
Luke 10,38-42
In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him speaking.
Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.'
But the Lord answered, 'Martha, Martha,' he said, 'you worry and fret about so many things,
and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today the Church remembers Martha, Mary’s and Lazarus’ sister. With this memory we understand the strength of the Gospel that leads us to change our heart and life. After having welcomed Jesus into her home, Martha let herself be "distracted by her many tasks," by the things that Martha saw to be truly important. These "tasks," her conviction, make her so hurried that she is not even aware of the presence of the Teacher. She is so taken up with herself and by her concerns, that not only is she not attentive to what Jesus is saying, but she also turns to him to reproach him for his disregard. She wants the guest to pay attention to her, not vice versa, showing that the centre of her attention was not Jesus, but herself. Truly she was being excessively restless and losing sight of what was essential. Every time we are focused on ourselves and on our own concerns, we end up avoiding listening to the Lord (how many times do our activities not even afford us the time to listen to and read the Word of God!) and lose sight of the meaning of our activity and the reason for our life. Instead, Mary, who understood what counts most in life, sits before the Teacher and listens attentively to his words. Our entire life, our way of thinking and our activity ought to flow from our listening to the Gospel.
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
