Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time Read more
Homily
Jesus says to his disciples: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" These are very clear words that should lead us to reflect upon how the majority of us think about our own lives and our worries about the present and the future. Don’t we often let ourselves anguish over the concerns of today and tomorrow? The Gospel invites us to look at the birds of the air and marvel at how they are taken care of by the Lord. If birds enjoy such care and, no doubt they count less than people, how much more will the Lord care for us? Yet we live worried about things that we would not lack in any event, even if we did not worry about. "Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." You, the Gospel seems to affirm, were born for the Lord. He knows this very well and your life is close to his heart, even more so than it is to yours. You are made for Him and for your brothers and sisters. And yet, we care very little with this truth, which is the very meaning of life, and even less we worry about it. If many people go hungry and lack clothing it is because others do not seek the kingdom of God or his justice, but rather only their own benefit.
At the beginning of this biblical passage, Jesus makes it very clear that no one can simultaneously serve two masters with equal fidelity: indeed, "he will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." The words of Deuteronomy come to mind, those that define "service" to the one God with these terms: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6:4-5). In name of this total devotion to God, idolatry is contested as it means "serving" other gods, other lords. It is God’s demand of an absolute right. We easily consider this excessive; and certainly it is excessive if compared to our calculated judgments, to our measured and controlled management of feelings. Indeed, it is precisely that: God is excessive. Yet, it is his excessive love that makes his demand right. The words of the prophet Isaiah were already clear: "Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Is 49:15). A mother would never forget her own child; and yet even if a mother ever did such an absurd thing, the Lord never would. For this reason, and this reason only, the Psalmist says: "For God alone my soul waits in silence" (Ps 62:1).
This Gospel passage is obviously not a sort of manifesto against a culture of work or a nostalgic call to living a serene life based on a Romantic, naturalistic rubric. Jesus invites his disciples to live radically and with integrity their relationship with God. Serving wealth (and everyone has his or her own idol-wealth) is like giving it one’s soul because it becomes the all-consuming motive for living. And yet, an ephemeral idol is nonetheless a sufficient reason for many to spend their lives in service to it. Serving wealth is thus wasting one’s life after the enchantment of what is ephemeral. Jesus’ warning is wise and sobering: "But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." We need first of all to strive for the kingdom of God, which are goodness, mercy, justice, fraternity and friendship. This is the essential point from which all other things will follow. Wealth will offer us something, but it will never give us that which is essential and, in every case, it is a costly and demanding idol that do not spare anyone. If we strive first for the kingdom of God, the rest shall come for us and for many others who don’t have even what they need.
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
