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
Mark 10, 28-31
Peter took this up. 'Look,' he said to him, 'we have left everything and followed you.'
Jesus said, 'In truth I tell you, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times as much, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land -- and persecutions too -- now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.
Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The episode that Mark reports is tightly connected with the two previous passages. Peter takes the word and says that the apostles’ attitude has been opposed to that of the rich man who, with a bitter soul, went away from Jesus shortly before. Indeed, they did leave everything - goods and family - and followed him. There are people who respond to Jesus’ call: the "we" that Peter uses on behalf of the first disciples and all those who trustingly abandon themselves to the Lord’s invitation. Peter’s moment of self-awareness allows Jesus to deepen the meaning of following: it is not a sacrifice or a loss compared to a life that otherwise would have been richer and happier. In fact, Jesus himself says elsewhere: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." The Gospel shows us the true wealth obtained by Jesus’ disciples. By leaving everything to follow him, they already receive, on this earth, a hundred times what they left, together with persecutions (Jesus does not fail to mention this), and, in the future, they will receive eternal life. The hundredfold is the richness and the sweetness of the community given to anyone who chooses Jesus. Yes, the community of believers becomes mother, brother, sister, and home for every disciple. And this fraternity will never end. Not even death can destroy it. These words of Jesus are a source of joy for each one of us: the Lord gives us much more than what we leave behind. The hyperbole of the "hundredfold" reveals the sense of abundance and the kind of wealth that those commit themselves to following the Gospel receive.
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
