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 14, 12-14
Then he said to his host, 'When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relations or rich neighbours, in case they invite you back and so repay you.
No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
then you will be blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus turns to the Pharisee who has invited him into his home and urges him next time to invite those who cannot return the invitation because they are poor or cannot reciprocate for some other reason. Once again, Jesus completely overturns the rules of this world. Jesus contrasts the meticulous attention given to choosing guests with the generosity of inviting those who cannot repay, and lists the poor, the blind, the lame, and the crippled. All of these people who are excluded from any invitation are invited by Jesus to participate in the banquet that is to be prepared. It is a new way of thinking about human relationships, and Jesus is the first person who lives it out. Our relationships should be founded on gratuitousness, not reciprocity; they should be based on unilateral love like the love of God which embraces everyone, especially the poor. And happiness, contrary to popular expectations, is actually found by opening up life’s banquet to all of those who are excluded, without expecting anything in return. The true recompense, in fact, is being able to work for this field of love, fraternity, and solidarity. Moreover, only from this perspective can the world be built upon solid and peaceful foundations. On the other hand, the growing distance between those who sit at the table of life and those who are excluded, as it is happening in our time, threatens the roots of peace among the peoples. The Gospel message is exactly the opposite: practising the primacy of gratuitousness, as Jesus himself lived and preached, remains one of the most urgent tasks that Christians should master in this world at the beginning of the new millennium. It is a dimension which appears difficult to live in, but it is the only point of view which can keep the world, in the present difficult moment, from falling into the abyss of violence. The one who understands and lives in this dimension of love is blessed today and tomorrow will "be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
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
