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Holy Wednesday
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Holy Wednesday

Mercoledì santo Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Holy Wednesday

Mercoledì santo


Reading of the Word of God

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

Matthew 26, 14-25

Then one of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

and said, 'What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?' They paid him thirty silver pieces,

and from then onwards he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, 'Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?'

He said, 'Go to a certain man in the city and say to him, "The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples." '

The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.

When evening came he was at table with the Twelve.

And while they were eating he said, 'In truth I tell you, one of you is about to betray me.'

They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, 'Not me, Lord, surely?'

He answered, 'Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me will betray me.

The Son of man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!'

Judas, who was to betray him, asked in his turn, 'Not me, Rabbi, surely?' Jesus answered, 'It is you who say it.'

 

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

If we die with him, we shall live with him,
if with him we endure, with him we shall reign.

Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory

The story of Judas’s betrayal always gives rise to feelings of pain and discomfort. How different he is from Mary, who only a few days earlier had anointed Jesus’ feet with precious oil! Judas sells his teacher for thirty pieces of silver (the price of a slave’s ransom). How bitter are the words that begin the passage of the Gospel we heard today: "One of the twelve!" Yes, one of his closest friends. And yet, Jesus had chosen him, loved him, and taken care of him. He had defended him from the attacks of his Pharisaic enemies. And now he is the one who goes to the Pharisees to sell Jesus. Bit by bit, Judas’s heart had let itself be seduced by "Mammon." The distance between him and the Teacher grew until he betrayed him. Jesus himself had said it clearly: "You cannot serve God and wealth." Judas ended up preferring wealth. It was drawing near to Passover, the time of passage, the time when the lamb was eaten. Jesus had preparations made for the meal. In reality, it was not Judas who "handed" Jesus over to the priests, but Jesus who "handed" himself over to death because of his love for his friends. The Teacher speaks of betrayal, but he does not oppose it with force; he does not destroy the traitor. Jesus wants love and only love. He wants the conversion of sinners, not their destruction. The question about love that was asked that evening continues to be asked of every disciple and of every man and woman. Jesus’ passion has not ended. That is why Judas is not distant from us or foreign to our way of acting. Each one of us is called to examine ourselves regarding our own betrayals. But if we welcome the Lord’s cross we will be freed from betrayal, indifference, and sin.

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!