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
Song of Songs 7, 11-14; 8,1-4
I belong to my love, and his desire is for me.
Come, my love, let us go to the fields. We will spend the night in the villages,
and in the early morning we will go to the vineyards. We will see if the vines are budding, if their blossoms are opening, if the pomegranate trees are in flower. Then I shall give you the gift of my love.
The mandrakes yield their fragrance, the most exquisite fruits are at our doors; the new as well as the old, I have stored them for you, my love.
Ah, why are you not my brother, nursed at my mother's breast! Then if I met you out of doors, I could kiss you without people thinking ill of me.
I should lead you, I should take you into my mother's house, and you would teach me! I should give you spiced wine to drink, juice of my pomegranates.
His left arm is under my head and his right embraces me.
LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved, before she pleases!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After the beloved man’s song, the woman’s voice now is heard. There are two scenes in this passage: the first (chapter 7:11-14) takes place outside, in the countryside among the villages, while the second (chapter 8:1-4) probably takes place in the city, among the houses and the maternal home. The beloved woman’s invitation begins with a reaffirmation of the words of the Covenant, words of reciprocal and complete possession: "I am my beloved’s." This possession needs to be consummated in love. The woman proposes a springtime outing to the countryside, which leads us to believe that they are in a city, probably Jerusalem. "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the fields, and lodge in the villages." Her promise is direct: "There I will give you my love." She invites him to join her on a sort of fertilizing mission, to show the world the beauty of their love. Nature in springtime not only helps their love, it becomes its fruit. Wherever there is love a new spring breaks forth, a new Eden, a new paradise. The woman sings, "Let us go out early to the vineyards, and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love." And, we could add, the vines will bud, the grape blossoms will open, and the pomegranates will bloom. The perfume of love - the special love that is shared by the Lord and the Church - will spread like "mandrakes" and there will be no lack of fruit at its gates. This image can be understood by all those who have experienced the extraordinary strength of the Lord’s gratuitous love: each time that the Church lives out this love, it becomes "attractive." Men and women, especially the poor, come to it because they need that love. The brides seems to be speaking to them and not just to her beloved when she says, "I have laid [them] up for you." Her words recall the Gospel passage in Matthew: "I was hungry and you gave me food." The scene then moves from the countryside to the city. The text hints that the relationship between the two lovers cannot be publically revealed. But she wants to love him. She wishes he were her brother, so she could kiss him in public and at home, where she would give him "spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranates." The test seems to suggest that the spousal love of the Lord can and should exist between brothers and sisters. It also points to the love experienced by those who choose celibacy and the absolute primacy of love for the Lord that should exist even between husbands and wives. A person’s "marital situation" is not what matters; what matters is the pre-eminence of God’s love. This is why the following statement seems so important to me: "you will teach me [the art of love]" (Note: the last part is in the Greek text). It is the Lord Jesus who teaches us to love. And love cannot be taken for granted. The world’s love is marked with selfishness and an often-mercantile attitude. The Lord’s love is different from the world’s: it is totally free and gratuitous. More than learn it, we have to receive it. That is why we have to enter into the mother’s house, the house of the holy Mother Church. It is here that Jesus, who loved us to the point of giving his life, gives us his Spirit, his love, a love that knows no limits, not even death. This is the love that we and the world need. At the beginning of this new millennium, the Church needs to begin travelling through the fields, the villages, and the cities of the world, like the beloved woman of the Song, to testify to the Lord’s gratuitous love, the love that saves us from the slavery of selfishness and materialism. This time it is man who will embrace the woman, "O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me!" The Church’s strength is not in herself, but in this embrace. The beloved woman once again calls on the chorus, "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!" This is an appeal to us: we need to let ourselves be loved by 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
