Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Proverbs 22, 17-29
Give ear, listen to the sayings of the sages, and apply your heart to what I know,
for it will be a delight to keep them deep within you to have them all ready on your lips.
So that your trust may be in Yahweh, it is you whom I wish to instruct today.
Have I not written for you thirty chapters of advice and knowledge,
to make you know the certainty of true sayings, so that you can return with sound answers to those who sent you?
Do not despoil the weak, for he is weak, and do not oppress the poor at the gate,
for Yahweh takes up their cause, and extorts the life of their extortioners.
Do not make friends with one who gives way to anger, make no one quick-tempered a companion of yours,
for fear you learn such behaviour and in it find a snare for yourself.
Do not be one of those who go guarantor, who go surety for debts:
if you have no means of paying your bed will be taken from under you.
Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone set by your ancestors.
You see someone alert at his business? His aim will be to serve kings; not for him the service of the obscure.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage contains a collection of proverbs whose content and meaning appear to finish at 24:22 but actually, they resonate until the very end of chapter 24. The passage presents us with recommendations on practical living that we had found elsewhere in Proverbs. The text explains that there are thirty mottos, "Have I not written for you thirty sayings..." It’s good how the Word of God is willing to address even the minutiae of life--almost as if God’s Word wanted to give us a wise response to the myriad circumstances of life instead of letting us follow fixed, habitual behaviours. Habit and instinct often speak of a lazy interior life of men and women who do not stop to reflect or who cannot accept changing their own behaviours and decisions. There are five comportments that are proposed to our reflection: one’s attitude towards the poor, irascible people, the issue of security for the other, boundaries, and our work ethic. The Word of the Lord warns us against exploiting the poor. Immediately what comes to mind are the many situations and conditions of poverty in our society and around the world. Often we witness an almost fierce dynamic against the poor which seeks not only to take away the little that they have (i.e. the evacuations of the Roma people and the exploitation of foreigners) but also to scorn them and subject them to violence as if they had no rights whatsoever. As in other parts of the Bible, this passage underscores the fact that God will come down to their defence: God will exact a justice that human beings do not observe: he will even take away the possessions of those who have committed injustice. Anger is the next theme the text presents. The text puts us on guard against spending time with people who are habitually angry because we can easily follow their example. How easy is it to be caught up in anger. In terms of lending, the text warns to reflect well about guaranteeing a debtor if we have no possibility of paying the debt. Certainly, it is not an invitation for greed as much as a wise, cautionary measure. Then, the passage draws us to what must have been a controversial theme: the issue of boundaries of lands. And in the end there is a useful guideline for the youth preparing to undertake work: it is an invitation to be hardworking and solicitous and industrious if one wants to have a profitable job, as the one in the service of the king.
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
