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
Luke 4, 38-44
Leaving the synagogue he went to Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in the grip of a high fever and they asked him to do something for her.
Standing over her he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to serve them.
At sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hands on each he cured them.
Devils too came out of many people, shouting, 'You are the Son of God.' But he warned them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
When daylight came he left the house and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds went to look for him, and when they had caught up with him they wanted to prevent him leaving them,
but he answered, 'I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do.'
And he continued his proclamation in the synagogues of Judaea.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus, having gone out of the synagogue, enters Peter’s house. Immediately, the apostle’s mother-in-law is presented, sick in bed. Jesus bent over her and commanded the fever to leave her. The fever, as the evangelist writes, left her, and the woman was healed. All of Jesus’ life has been bending toward the poor, toward the weak, and in this case, toward an older woman. In her, we see all the elderly who today are surrounded by indifference and wickedness, and are forced to remain stuck in sadness, waiting for a sad end! The Lord Jesus, bending over that woman, restored her vigour to the point that, getting up out of bed, she began to serve him. The evangelist leads us to suppose that Jesus remained at home until the end of the day, and then observes that all who had ill persons brought them before the door of that house. Peter’s house - which now was also Jesus’ - was a reference point for the people of that city to bring the weak, the poor, and the sick. Everyone went to knock on that door, certain that they would be taken care of. Should it not be likewise for every parish? Should not each Christian community be a true door of hope for those who seek consolation and help? Should it not be thus for each believer? We are unfortunately far from this Gospel scene. But where this takes place, the Christian community relives the joy of the disciples as they see men and women healed by the power of the Gospel of love. We should cast away scepticism - all rationalism about miracles. We should not understand them just as "miraculous" occurrence; there are so many ways in which miracles take place, and not just those of the body. In the Gospels, even if only 35 are listed, we often hear of "miracles, signs, and portents" worked by Jesus. This power has been granted also to the disciples, and hence, also to us. Luke’s subsequent phrase tells us from where the power to accomplish them comes. Towards dawn, the day having ended, Jesus went to a solitary place to pray, and from here came his strength. It is a great teaching for every believer: to make our prayer to the Lord at dawn means to give our day a good direction. It receives from God the power to be witnesses of his love.
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
