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
Revelation 6,9-17
When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the Word of God, for witnessing to it.
They shouted in a loud voice, 'Holy, true Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?'
Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the roll was completed of their fellow-servants and brothers who were still to be killed as they had been.
In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over,
and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it;
the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places.
Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains.
They said to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb.
For the Great Day of his retribution has come, and who can face it?'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Lamb continues to open the seals, that is, to reveal the deeper meaning of human history. When the fifth seal is opened, the ranks of martyrs appear, that is, "those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given." They are "under the altar," next to Jesus. It is perhaps in response to this scene that the altars in ancient Christian basilicas were built over the places where the bodies of martyrs were buried, and every altar still contains relics of saints and martyrs today. When Cain kills Abel in the book of Genesis, it is the Lord himself who says: "[the] blood is crying out to me from the ground!" The millions of martyrs of the twentieth century come to mind: the bishops, priests, religious and faithful men and women of all kinds, belonging to the different Christian confessions, who gave their testimony to the point of shedding their own blood. Their voice reaches all the way to the altar in heaven. Even if they were mostly ignored, even by us, the Lord has listened to them. And it was their blood that did not allow the human history of the twentieth century to plunge definitively into the chasm of Evil and death. They stand before our eyes and they illuminate our steps. They remind us that "martyrdom," that is, "giving one’s life for others," is the essence of the Gospel and consequently the essence of every disciple’s life. Their testimony made the Church of the end of the second millennium a martyr again, like the Church of the beginning of the first millennium. Their song is a great universal invocation for the entire world to convert, to abandon violence, to walk on the path of peace, and to turn indifference into love, injustice into mercy, and hatred into forgiveness. The sixth seal demonstrates what will happen to creation and, above all, to those who create violence if this conversion does not take place: there will be earthquakes and solar eclipses, the moon will turn red, the stars will fall, the sky will vanish, and the mountains and islands will be torn from their foundations. Nothing, not even the public authorities, will be able to protect us from the eruption of God’s justice when he illuminates every one of life’s dark corners with the light of day. They will call for help and protection in vain. The "great day" is coming, the day of God’s intervention in history, the day sung by the prophets (Amos 5:16-20). It is not only God’s "day of wrath," it is also the Lamb’s, "gentle and humble in heart" (Mt 11:29). Even Christ bears the face of a severe judge. The Apostle wonders who can stand upright before God. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that only the ones who will be able to stand upright are those who bend to love. They will hear the Lord say: "I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink."
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
