Memory of Saint Francis Xavier, a sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary in India and Japan. Read more
Memory of Saint Francis Xavier, a sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary in India and Japan.
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
Matthew 9, 27-31
As Jesus went on his way two blind men followed him shouting, 'Take pity on us, son of David.'
And when Jesus reached the house the blind men came up to him and he said to them, 'Do you believe I can do this?' They said, 'Lord, we do.'
Then he touched their eyes saying, 'According to your faith, let it be done to you.'
And their sight returned. Then Jesus sternly warned them, 'Take care that no one learns about this.'
But when they had gone away, they talked about him all over the countryside.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After he leaves the house of the leader of the synagogue, Jesus is followed by two blind men, who speak a simple prayer to him: "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" It is an invocation that we often find in the Gospels, and the Church has us repeat it at the beginning of every Mass: "Lord, have mercy!" In front of the greatness of the Lord, this is the first and most important prayer that we can make: we are poor beggars for love. After he enters his house, Jesus welcomes the two blind men and speaks with them. Healing is not a magic trick or the result of esoteric rites and practices. It always occurs in the context of a personal relationship with Jesus. We need to meet his gaze and heart and bind ourselves to him with faith. Jesus asks the two blind men: "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" It is a request for faith and trust. No healing is possible without this personal and direct relationship. When the two blind men answered his question affirmatively, Jesus touched their eyes and said: "According to your faith let it be done to you." And the two men’s eyes were opened. Jesus almost seems to obey the two blind men’s request, as if to emphasize that there can be no miracle without their faith and their involvement. There is certain proportionality between faith and healing. In the Letter of James it is written: "You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly" (4:2). Of course the Lord already knows what we need (Mt 6:8), but a prayer spoken with faith bends the Lord’s heart to our request. This is a precious teaching that we have to make our own. Above all, faith means trusting in the Lord completely, without any reservations, because the Lord is coming to save us from all slavery and to free us from all blindness. Let us entrust our lives to the Lord so that we might have light and so walk along his ways. Jesus warns the two blind men not to speak to anyone about what had happened to them. Perhaps he wanted to make them understand that he had not come for his own glory, but to save those who needed help. How different from us and our habits! We glorify ourselves and show off for much less. This Gospel passage invites us to imitate the Lord, who welcomes the cry of the poor and frees them from their 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
