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Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

Sunday of Christ King of the Universe
Memory of the Presentation of the Mother of the Lord at the Temple. This feast, born in Jerusalem and celebrated in both the East and the West, remembers both the ancient temple and how Mary offered her life to the Lord.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday

Homily

With this thirty-fourth Sunday the liturgical year comes to a close. It’s true that only those who go to church notice this. It is indeed a date that does not correspond to any administrative, scholastic or other kind of event, which in some way opens or closes a particular period. In fact, the whole liturgical year corresponds to a division of time which is outside everyone’s normal habits. And thus it should be. Liturgical time indeed does not originate from below; it does not originate from human calculations or terms. It is a time which comes from above, from God; it’s God’s "Time," which enters into human "time;" it is the "History" which breaks forth into human "history." We can say that the liturgical year is Christ himself, contemplated from Sunday to Sunday.
On this last Sunday, which closes the liturgical year, we see Christ at the end of time as "king of the universe." God’s word on this Sunday, again and as it has always done, takes us by the hand and leads us to the contemplation of Christ’s royalty. It is not a matter of looking at this mystery from the outside: we are within it. The apostle Paul exhorts each one of us to give thanks to God, who "has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Col 1:13). We are indeed among those who have been "transferred," or, if you will, of those who have "emigrated," from this world, where darkness reigns, to another world, where the Lord Jesus reigns. And that this world of Jesus is "other" than ours is apparent from the gospel scene which is proposed to us today as the image of royalty: Jesus nailed to the cross with two robbers on each side.
Someone, with apologies for the desecrating tone of the comparison, has said that this is the official photo of our king (we have indeed posted it in so many places, but the routine nature of how we look at it has made it lose its poignancy as scandal, as a stumbling block, often becoming simply an ornament). No doubt we are dealing with a strange throne (the cross) and of an even odder court (two thieves). And Jesus nevertheless affirms, in no uncertain terms, that he is king, and that he is such even in this very way. The apostle Paul takes up this conviction and transmits it to the Churches, well-aware of the scandal it will cause. He wrote to the Christians in Corinth: "but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (l Cor 1:23). Jesus is king as a crucified man; this is how he wields his royal power. Jesus, moreover, had told the disciples this several times in the three years that he was with them. A little while before he died, he told them: "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you" (Lk 22:25-26). And Jesus is the first to set the example with his life and his death.
While he was nailed to the cross, the very same suggestion is made by various individuals: "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself."(23:37). The chief priests tell him, the soldiers yell it to him, even one of the robbers hanging next to him shouts it. The persons vary, but the refrain is always the same: "Save yourself." In these two simple words is enclosed one of the dogmas in which the foundation of the life of each one of us is deeply rooted. And we have learned this doctrine from infancy. It contains the rule of life, it synthesizes the yardstick with which to judge everything, it symbolizes the criterion which makes us accept this and reject that.
Nevertheless, this dogma is defeated on the cross. Love has annulled the deepest conviction which rules over the life of mankind. Everyone saves himself in this world. The only one who has not saved himself has been Jesus. In such fashion, royal power finds precisely in the cross its culmination. And we immediately see the effects. Jesus as king, not yielding to the last temptation, precisely that of saving himself, saves one of the two robbers just because he had seen to what point love had led Jesus. Christ’s feast as king of the universe is the feast of this love, a love that has given all of himself for humankind. On this is our whole hope founded, our today and our tomorrow.

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR

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!

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR