Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 17,14-19
As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him.
'Lord,' he said, 'take pity on my son: he is demented and in a wretched state; he is always falling into fire and into water.
I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.'
In reply, Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.'
And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy, who was cured from that moment.
Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. 'Why were we unable to drive it out?' they asked.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
While they are coming down from the mountain, Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone what happened. The time for the manifestation of Jesus’ mystery will come, but now it is important to continue to follow and listen. Jesus obviously does not turn away from his path, even if he knows that they will not treat him any differently than the Baptist. And he says so to the disciples, who are starting to understand. He then goes to the crowd, and immediately, a father presents his sick son to him. In truth, not wanting to bother the Teacher, this father had brought his son to the disciples, hoping that they would be able to heal him. But they were not successful. Jesus heals him with a single word. Perhaps annoyed by their failure, once they are alone with him, the disciples ask Jesus why they were not able to heal the boy. Jesus answers very clearly, saying that they had little faith. Faith as small as a mustard seed would have been enough to work the miracle, but the disciples did not even have that much. Nonetheless, Jesus continues to confide in them; he does not deny them his words, affection, or correction. The last line in the passage opens to the disciples a future full of hope: "Nothing will be impossible for you." Even a little faith always works great wonders: it can move anything, even mountains.
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
