Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 9, 22-25
He said, 'The Son of man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.'
Then, speaking to all, he said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.
Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, will save it.
What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole world and forfeit or lose his very self?
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Gospel passage in Luke, together with that in Deuteronomy (30:15-20), places us on the path of this Lenten season. The passage in Deuteronomy, which transmits part of Moses’ third speech to the people of Israel, places two paths before us, that of good and that of evil. The Lord greatly respects our liberty. He does not force us to do good, he proposes it because good can only be a product of love. And he tells us: "I place before you life and what’s good, death and evil." Yes, life consists in loving, while death is following what is evil. In fact, if we distance ourselves from God and his commandments, he warns us: "I declare that you will certainly perish." During this time it will be well to reflect on this responsibility that we all have: choosing the path of the good or that of evil. Even Jesus returns to this topic, in the Gospel passage we have heard. He says: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." All of us, naturally, try to think of ourselves and our self-affirmation. It is the evil instinct of love for oneself which is rooted in the heart of every human being. Such an instinct, which pushes us to think only of ourselves, is joined to lack of interest in others, and often even to hostility towards others, especially if we see them as possible enemies. Jesus warns: "What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?" Thirst for gain at any cost seems like a fever which never leaves us. It is like a constant fever which leads us to ruin. How many lives are sacrificed on the altar of profit? How many families, how many relationships are burned up for the primacy of profit! Jesus teaches another way. And he doesn’t teach it with words, but with his example. He goes to Jerusalem to save us, to love us, even if this choice means suffering and death, too. But "on the third day" he will rise to a new and full life. Jesus is not a powerful and strong Messiah as humans wanted him. He has come to give his life in ransom for all. His strength is not that of men but that of love, which knows no limits, not even the limit of love for oneself. And, turning to all who follow him, he explains what following the Gospel demands: getting away from one's own selfishness, giving up love only for ourselves, leaving behind the usual egocentric habits and taking up Jesus’ lifestyle, that is, not living for oneself anymore, but for the Lord and for others. This is what the exhortation means: "deny themselves and take up their own cross." It is the path of true profit. Those who want to preserve their own life, in other words, their usual habits, their own egocentric traditions, will lose it. Salvation does not consist in having so many things but in being generous of heart and passionate for the Gospel.
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
