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
Luke 11, 37-41
He had just finished speaking when a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at table.
The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal.
But the Lord said to him, 'You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.
Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?
Instead, give alms from what you have and, look, everything will be clean for you.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus, having been invited to the house of a Pharisee, does not perform the necessary rituals before eating. This behaviour earns him severe judgments. Noticing it Jesus responds by moving the question from the ritual level to the level of the heart. And he clarifies that appearances are not what count in life, whether correct or not; what counts is being a woman or a man with a merciful heart. It is in the heart, on the inside, that human life is at stake, his happiness and salvation. If our heart is full of wickedness, then our actions will be likewise. And so, without condemning the observance of rituals, Jesus wants to re-emphasize the heart as the root of behaviours. What counts is what is in the heart. Observing rituals has no value if afterwards we offend justice and distance ourselves from love. In this sense it is of no use to multiply gestures and actions if the heart is full of "greed and wickedness." Jesus urges his listeners to "give for alms those things that are within," that is, to give the world the love that has been poured into our hearts. Freely-given love is the true riches that each believer has in her heart. If we are merciful towards others, if we are generous in loving others, love not only does not decrease, but it enriches the heart. The wealth of a disciple is not found in the multiplication of rituals he or she practices, but in having a merciful heart which is ready to love. Jesus’ statement is important: given alms makes one pure. Unfortunately it is ever more frequent today to see ordinances which prohibit begging and discourage almsgiving, even finding a sad complicity among Christians. The whole biblical tradition, which in the Gospel finds its zenith, exhorts Christians to give alms, not because it is the "solution" to social problems but because it is love’s first step: giving alms forces one to turn one’s gaze from oneself towards the needy and to give them something, even if little. Woe to the blocking of this first step of the heart going beyond itself, we would remain enclosed in our selfishness.
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
