Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 11, 20-24
Then he began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent.
'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Still, I tell you that it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on Judgement Day than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised as high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell. For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet.
Still, I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on Judgement Day than for you.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus has just rebuked his generation because it has rejected the preaching of the Baptist and was doing the same with his preaching. Deafness in receiving the plan of salvation as presented by the Baptist was thus manifested. And now they also rejected the message which Jesus had come to bring. At this point, Jesus turns to the two cities of Galilee near Capernaum and apostrophises them harshly: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" The accusation has to do with their rejection of Jesus’ preaching, despite the notable number of miracles he did among their inhabitants. It is thus not simply a matter of a life gone astray, as for example was the case with Sodom and Gomorra, but of the stubbornness of both cities’ inhabitants in not accepting the Gospel in their heart and converting. Jesus calls to mind two ancient pagan cities, Tyre and Sidon, who would have done penance and fasted if they had witnessed the miracles performed at Chorazin and Bethsaida. It is a cry of distress by Jesus, who sees the failure of so much preaching and loving acts towards everyone. There is even a mystery involved in non-acceptance. But this can be understood within the logic of hardness of heart in hearing and receiving everything that comes from a place beyond ourselves. Self-sufficiency and pride inexorably lead to hearts and minds being closed. Thus Jesus’ most severe judgment on the two cities. Jesus then apostrophises Capernaum, where he had made his dwelling-place together with his disciples. With Capernaum also he is most severe: "No, you will be brought down to Hades!" Jesus seems to refer not only to the inhabitants, but to the city itself. In effect, there is a link between the inhabitants and the city in which they live. We could say that life in society is the result of the quality of life of its inhabitants. If there is lack of interest for the life of all and each one thinks only of his own affairs, the city self-destructs. Hell begins like that, growing from egocentrism of the heart. There is a responsibility Christians have towards the city in which they live. They should be the soul so that that city, and the men and women who live in it, are helped to live in peace and harmony.
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
