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
Luke 12, 54-59
He said again to the crowds, 'When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does.
And when the wind is from the south you say it's going to be hot, and it is.
Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?
'Why not judge for yourselves what is upright?
For example: when you are going to court with your opponent, make an effort to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer and the officer have you thrown into prison.
I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
To those who demanded a sign before they would believe in his words, Jesus answered that he was the only sign that fully and clearly manifested God’s love. Why are we incapable of seeing the "the signs" of the Lord even when they are right before our eyes? The answer is easy: because in general we only pay attention to our own affairs and ourselves. But this is not what happens when we want to know whether it will be hot or cold, Jesus says to his listeners. When we want to check the weather, we look up to see the clouds and we go out of our houses to feel the wind. In the same way, Jesus warns us, we need to look up to understand the time of salvation. We need to raise our eyes from ourselves, leave behind the well-established habits that harden us, distance ourselves from the egocentrism that makes us blind, and become attentive to the signs that the Lord is sending us. The first great sign is the Gospel, which we could call the sign of signs. Listening to its word and putting it into practice is the first work of the believer. There are other signs, too: the sacraments and, in particular, the Holy Liturgy which allows us to participate in the mystery of the death and resurrection of the Lord. The Church tells us that the Holy Mass is the summit and the fount of the whole spiritual life. How much more attentive should we be! And then there is another sign, a plural sign: the poor and all of those who are waiting to be freed from the slavery of this world. To not pay attention to their condition means to not understand the heart of God and of history. "You do not know how to judge these times" -Jesus admonishes in the Gospel. It is urgent that we understand the world in which we live and the culture found across the peoples of this new millennium. Human beings are subjected to what we could call the "dictatorship of materialism." It is a form of slavery that has transformed itself into a sort of culture that makes this world of ours even more inhuman and violent. An objective appraisal, true insight into history, open to hope, comes from carefully turning many times to Scripture. The example Jesus adduces of reaching an agreement with one’s adversary before judgment day -it will then be too latesuggests the opportunity to make one’s life in accord with the Gospel and to be saved. The Word of God helps us to discern the signs of God’s presence and to see the need that this generation of ours has of the Gospel of 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
