Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
1 Timothy 6, 1-2
All those under the yoke of slavery must have unqualified respect for their masters, so that the name of God and our teaching are not brought into disrepute.
Those whose masters are believers are not to respect them less because they are brothers; on the contrary, they should serve them all the better, since those who have the benefit of their services are believers and dear to God. This is what you are to teach and urge.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Paul concludes his instructions for wise pastoral action in the community with a few short admonishments for slaves. Along with widows (5:3-16), slaves are the poorest members of the Christian community; and it is significant that the apostle gives Timothy precise instructions concerning them. In truth, this aspect of pastoral ministry is given a certain emphasis in the New Testament. The Letter to the Ephesians also contains a number of instructions for slaves, telling them how to live and behave (Eph 6:5-8). Paul knows their difficult situation well, and he defines it as being "under the yoke." Slaves, in fact, are subjected to the will of their masters and lack even the right to make free decisions about their own person. Because of this, the Christian slave has a particularly difficult task. The Christian slave with a pagan master should not rebel by refusing to respect his master, even though he possesses the liberty of Christ (1 Cor 7:22). Paul certainly does not want to favour the resignation of slaves to their condition or to make it unchangeable in time. However, by affirming the value of a good evangelic witness even from a slave, Paul unsettles the very reason of slavery; a radical fraternity among men and women is the beginning of the deepest revolution in human relationships. The Gospel, affirming God’s paternity on all, demands that the believers change the world in a radical way and not resign themselves to the unjust situations in which men and women are forced to live or constrain themselves to be. And this change will be real and profound if it begins in the believer’s own heart. It is from the heart, in fact, that all injustice is born and grows, including slavery. History teaches us that the gospel life should transform even culture, so that deep change may occur. Even what are called today structures of "sin" (as slavery could have been until few centuries ago) can be changed by starting with changing the hearts, the minds, and the culture in which a society is immersed. The Gospel that Paul preaches to masters and slaves is the source of a new humanism that empties the "sinful" structure of slavery from the inside. And if the master is also a Christian himself, Paul asks both to live in the spirit of fraternity that the Gospel came to establish on earth: the slave should not despise his master and vice versa. Both should compete in esteeming and helping each other, since they are brothers in Christ. Love is a leaven that changes hearts and with them the whole of society.
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
