Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 10, 1-7
He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness.
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who was also his betrayer.
These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: 'Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town;
go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The call of the Twelve and their evangelic mission springs from Jesus’ compassion for the tired and worn-out crowds. Jesus chooses twelve people from among the disciples, as many as the tribes of Israel, as if to say that no one should be deprived of the proclamation of the Gospel. The people called are different from one another. Origin, belonging, culture, and race are not what count in the Christian community, but total trust in Jesus’ call. The evangelist reports the names of the twelve Apostles. Among them there are Greeks and Jews, men coming from the North and from the South, simple fishermen and men eager to see the end of the heavy Roman domination, followers of the Baptist (James and John) and tax-collectors (Matthew). It is a heterogeneous group where their country of origin and ideological belongings are in the background. What counts is following Jesus and obeying his Word; indeed these two dimensions constitute the new identity. They are recognized by others as those who are with the Nazarene and not as the tax-collector, the Zealot and the fisherman. Each one, as happens with Simon, receives a new name, meaning a new mission and a new power. They are no longer as they were before the encounter with Jesus, identified by their work. From that moment on they are witnesses of the Gospel, of a universal dream which is not theirs but God’s, and they are given the power to change hearts, to defeat evil, to welcome the weak, to love the despairing, and to hasten the Kingdom of love. It is a real power, a true strength of change, that that does not come from money, bags, tunics, or anything on earth; it is the power of love without limits that comes from above and which Jesus is the first to witness. This first Gospel mission is emblematic for every Christian generation: there is no other way for Jesus’ disciples. Our generation too is called to set out on the new millennium living this Gospel page to the letter. In Matthew’s Gospel, the command is only addressed to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." This limitation corresponds to a Jewish-Christian tradition of the first years of the Church; historically, the mission of Jesus and of the apostles began with Israel. We can affirm that this instruction in Matthew’s Gospel, understood historically, has been fortunately surpassed by the Church’s mission, which is global and without borders, which certainly corresponds exactly to the will that all be saved, which is apparent in the life of Jesus and of the first Christian communities.
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
