Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Proverbs 3, 13-20
Blessed are those who have discovered wisdom, those who have acquired understanding!
Gaining her is more rewarding than silver, her yield is more valuable than gold.
She is beyond the price of pearls, nothing you could covet is her equal.
In her right hand is length of days; in her left hand, riches and honour.
Her ways are filled with delight, her paths all lead to contentment.
She is a tree of life for those who hold her fast, those who cling to her live happy lives.
In wisdom, Yahweh laid the earth's foundations, in understanding he spread out the heavens.
Through his knowledge the depths were cleft open, and the clouds distil the dew.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage contains the first beatitude: "Happy are those who find wisdom." Wisdom is offered to everyone, without distinction. Everyone can find it, if they search for it. In this passage it seems as if Israel is moving out of its confines and revealing the universal salvation of its God who does not hide himself from anyone. This beatitude proposes values, instead of making demands, and makes an appeal to goodness and to its capacity to attract. We can all be happy if we listen to what the Lord offers us. Here the value of wisdom is exulted as it can attract all to itself. It is worth more than gold and silver and is more precious than pearls. Whoever acquires it will have a long life, together with honour and riches. Certainly this description will be discussed in the Book of Wisdom in the face of the premature death of the righteous and wise. How can God permit the death of those who were faithful to him while it seems that the wicked prosper? We need to keep this question before us, not to diminish the meaning of this passage in Proverbs, but to ask ourselves what this happiness that it announces means. The unequalled value of wisdom surpasses the happiness we try to seek by force or to buy with money. The value of wisdom is supreme in that it is worth seeking for its own sake. Wisdom is both a gift from God as well as the fruit of our searching. When we receive wisdom, we are given an unexpected happiness of living, more precious than any other kind of happiness we can ever find on our own. Wisdom even seems to lead us back to that original happiness of Paradise. The references to the tree of life and to creation lead us to think in this direction: "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew." Whoever knows how to lay hold of wisdom-and hence we return to the idea of the responsibility of each one of us-will rediscover something original in his or her relationship with God, because wisdom is like the tree of life in Paradise, which Adam and Eve lost out of pride that caused them to distance themselves from God. This is why, if we want to acquire wisdom, we have to return to being children.
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
