Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 21, 34-36
'Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly,
like a trap. For it will come down on all those living on the face of the earth.
Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of man.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Gospel we have heard closes the eschatological discourse according to Luke’s version and also ends the liturgical year. Jesus, from the time he arrived in Jerusalem, has taught daily in the temple; and in the evening withdrew to the garden of olives to pray. Now he exhorts the disciples to "be alert and pray." He does not only say it with words, but with his very life. He well knows that before decisive and also difficult moments it is necessary to be attentive and ready. Every day is to be lived as if it were the last. In truth every day, in a way, is the last, in the sense that it is unique and there is none other like it, and once it passes it does not return. Every day, therefore, demands attention and vigilance from us because the Lord is in front of us and knocks at the door, as the Book of Revelation reminds us: "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me." (Rev 3:20). The evangelist Luke presents prayer as the attitude par excellence of the disciple who keeps watch to welcome the Lord who knocks at the door of our heart. Prayer not only keeps evil away and gives strength to fight it; it above all frees us from concentrating on ourselves to make us lift our gaze towards on high, towards the Lord who comes. And Jesus exhorts us to pray always, without ceasing. For us, poor limited human beings, to pray non-stop means to pray daily. Yes, in daily prayer lies that fidelity to the Gospel, which is required and which guides the disciple to God. Every day we should "appear before the Son of Man" and with him call upon the Father who is in heaven in order to taste, already now, the definitive encounter with Him. The Church’s liturgy, as it leads us to the new liturgical year, after having us contemplate the "end" of history, summons each one of us to what is central and to persevere in prayer as the guaranty of the definitive encounter between us and the Lord.
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
