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 13, 18-21
He went on to say, 'What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with?
It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.'
Again he said, 'What shall I compare the kingdom of God with?
It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
These two very brief parables are better understood if placed in the context of the growing opposition to Jesus on the part of the leaders of the people. Truly it is a destiny that belongs to the entire Christian history: the Gospel finds opposition in every generation that succeeds another in history. It is the novelty of Jesus’ love that clashes with the hardness of the human heart and above all with the destructive work of the prince of evil. Then as now we can in any case have doubts about the success of Jesus’ mission and that of the Christians. In Jesus’ time, moreover, both the disciples and the people conceived of a powerful Messiah according to the criteria of the world. Today we could rather think of the condition of minority of Christians in the world or in any case of the difficulty of communicating the Gospel in difficult conditions. How is it possible to establish the kingdom of God only with meekness and words? Isn’t the Gospel too weak to change a world that appears so much stronger? Is not the Word of God too simple for a world that is becoming more and more complex? These questions, better, these doubts receive an effective answer with Jesus’ two parables: the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast and the dough. The kingdom of God--the world of peace and love, justice and mercy that Jesus came to open on earth begins not in a powerful or glamorous way, but like a small seed or a handful of yeast. Of course, it is important that the seed enter the soil and that the yeast be mixed with the dough. But both, the seed and the yeast, if they keep their strength and their energy, that is if they are not weakened by our laziness and our egocentrism, will bear fruit. Luke the evangelist is different than the other two Synoptics in this way; he underlines in the parable the idea of development, continuous growth. The seed - that is the Gospel preaching - will produce a great tree and the yeast will ferment the bread of society and of the world. Many people will be able to rest in the shade of the tree of love, and many people will be able to feed on the bread of mercy. But the seed must be smashed in the ground and the yeast must penetrate into the dough to ferment it. The decisive problem for the Gospel to be efficacious in its work is that it be communicated "without additions," as Francis of Assisi reminds us, in other words, it must be lived in its radicality.
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
