Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 11, 29-32
The crowds got even bigger and he addressed them, 'This is an evil generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.
For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation.
On Judgement Day the Queen of the South will stand up against the people of this generation and be their condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, look, there is something greater than Solomon here.
On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because when Jonah preached they repented; and, look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jesus is surrounded by many people. They had need of true words which would save from fears and anguish. Like then, there are many people today who are looking for security and tranquillity. It is obviously a legitimate quest. But it is often carried out in an irrational way, if not deeply mistaken. It is for example a mistake to place on the poor and lonely the causes of insecurity or distress. There are indeed causes and they are to be sought carefully. But perhaps -even if it is not easy to realize ittrue insecurity stems from the radical aloneness each of us has. Yes, we are alone, we do not feel loved and therefore a sense of being lost envelops us inside and out. This deep solitude is rendered more acute by that evil instinct which leads each person to think only of themselves and not to regard others. It is also true that the great cities of today, like the great Nineveh, have made life difficult. Existence has become harder and more violent, especially for the poorest. It is not rare for the convulsive rhythms of our cities to lead to physical and mental unbalance, to poverty and marginalisation, and to desperation and anguish. This is why it is easy to think that force or something prodigious can give us security. Hence seeking for a "sign," for something which in a quasi-magical way will free us from anguish. But there are no magical escapes; there are no esoteric paths to traverse. But in truth what our cities need is for their cities and squares to be traversed once again by the preaching of the Gospel, as when Jonah preached repentance in Nineveh. The Gospel is much more precious than the wisdom of Solomon and much more powerful than the preaching of Jonah. The Gospel is the true force which we have in our hands in order to make our city more humane, to give back a heart to the dryness of a life which generates conflicts and violence. We Christians have the great responsibility of living and communicating the Gospel so that our cities can be saved from despair and violence.
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
