Memory of St. Augustine of Canterbury (+605 ca.), bishop, father of the English church. Read more
Memory of St. Augustine of Canterbury (+605 ca.), bishop, father of the English church.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 15, 12-17
This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends, if you do what I command you.
I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.
My command to you is to love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Even though he has already spoken to the disciples about the new commandment, Jesus now returns to it amidst the solemnity of his farewell speech: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." He does not simply say "love one another," he also notes the dimension that this reciprocal love must obtain: "As I have loved you." Indeed, we could already have deduced the nature of evangelical love from the allegory of the vine: the sap with which the vine nourishes the branches is none other than Jesus’ own love. Consequently, the disciples’ love is not just any love; it does not come from them or from their traditions, personality, or upbringing. Evangelical love is a gift that comes from Jesus himself. It is agape, that is, the love of God that is poured into our hearts. It is a totally gratuitous love that forgets itself and will even give its life for others. This is how Jesus loved. Christian love transforms the relationship between the Teacher and the disciple, between the Creator and the creature. The hierarchical distance that should be there is eliminated to make space for a new relationship, a relationship of gratuitous love. Jesus explained this fact with these words: "I do not call you servants any longer...but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father." We could say that the substance of the bond between Jesus and his disciples is friendship. God already called Abraham his "friend" and not his servant because God did keep anything hidden from him. Likewise, Jesus does not have servants, only friends. The word "friend" is not a worn-out expression for Jesus. For him, the word makes demands of his very life. He feels friendship for all, even Judas, who is about to betray him. And if we absolutely have to name a preference, it is for the weakest and the poorest, sinners and the excluded. For Jesus no man or woman is an enemy; there is not a trace of the culture of the enemy in the Gospel. If anything, there is an incredible witness of friendship. Jesus’ disciples know that this is the treasure that they have to live out and communicate.
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
