Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Mark 11, 27-33
They came to Jerusalem again, and as Jesus was walking in the Temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him,
and they said to him, 'What authority have you for acting like this? Or who gave you authority to act like this?'
Jesus said to them, 'And I will ask you a question, just one; answer me and I will tell you my authority for acting like this.
John's baptism, what was its origin, heavenly or human? Answer me that.'
And they argued this way among themselves, 'If we say heavenly, he will say, "Then why did you refuse to believe him?"
But dare we say human?' -- they had the people to fear, for everyone held that John had been a real prophet.
So their reply to Jesus was, 'We do not know.' And Jesus said to them, 'Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the third time Jesus enters Jerusalem and walks through the temple, which has become the regular site of his teaching. The temple is no longer a market place, nor is it filled with the business of individuals. Jesus has purified it and turned it into the place of the manifestation of the Word of God. In this context begins a final confrontation with the religious leaders of Israel to show who the true shepherd of the people of Israel is. It is not by chance that the leaders of the people ask him about his authority: "By what authority are you doing these things?" They were convinced - just as we are about some of our ideas and our habits - that their authority was founded on the law of Moses. But what did Jesus found his authority on? There is no doubt that this is a central question. In some ways, it is the same problem that arose the first time Jesus preached in Nazareth, that is, the question about the Gospel’s authority over our lives. Both the inhabitants of Nazareth and the leaders of the people refused to allow Jesus to have authority over them: he could not demand anything from them; much less could he insist that they entrust their lives to him. Jesus does not give any answer. His attitude does not seem very conciliatory; it seems a sign of a lack of availability. In reality, the Lord knows that his Word can only bear fruit if it falls on the earth of a clear and sincere heart. Those high priests, those scribes, and those elders answer, "we do not know," but they are not sincere. They thought differently than they spoke. And so Jesus stigmatises false and duplicitous hearts for being closed. Jesus does not speak because his words would have been nullified and lost to those explicitly false hearts, closed and so unwelcoming. Jesus’ silence is actually a sign of the deafness of those who do not know how to listen and do not want to. The Word does not speak to those who do not predispose themselves by opening their hearts to welcome it.
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
