Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 15, 1-10
The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him,
and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'
So he told them this parable:
'Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it?
And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders
and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost."
In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine upright people who have no need of repentance.
'Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?
And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbours, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found the drachma I lost."
In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
A large crowd is following Jesus, for the most part made up of people who are sick, abandoned, and gone astray, "tax-collectors and sinners," as Luke the evangelist explicitly observes with some pride. And all come seeking protection, healing, consolation. Obviously all this does not go unobserved by those responsible for religion in Israel: it causes much suspicion and above all perplexity, if not even scandal. This becomes more evident when Jesus eats with sinners and tax-collectors. Meals in common in fact openly contradict what the Pharisees preach and practise, that is, a religiosity marked by external ritualism which keeps believers physically far from those who are considered impure and sinful. For Jesus the relationship with tax-collectors and sinners is not a matter of chance, but a fundamental choice; it is part of his very mission and, we could say, of God’s behaviour. That is why Jesus responds to the accusation of the Pharisees not by talking about himself, but by talking about God, about how God acts. Thirty-two verses of the fifteenth chapter of Luke are dedicated to the narration of God’s merciful behaviour! The first ten verses of chapter fifteen tell the first two parables of mercy: the lost sheep and the lost coin. In the first one, God appears as a shepherd who has lost one of his one hundred sheep. The shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine that have stayed in the fold and sets off to find the one who has been lost. In the second parable, God is also like a housewife who has lost a coin and keeps looking for it until she finds it. Both the shepherd and the woman, after having found the sheep and the coin that had been lost, call their neighbours to celebrate. God does not desire the death, but the conversion, of sinners; in other words, he desires that they change their lives and return to Him. Therefore Jesus affirms: "I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." It is the feast God likes most. This is why He seeks out, even begs for, love. He does it with us too: let us allow ourselves to be found by Him.
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
