Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
1 Timothy 6, 11-16
But, as someone dedicated to God, avoid all that. You must aim to be upright and religious, filled with faith and love, perseverance and gentleness.
Fight the good fight of faith and win the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made your noble profession of faith before many witnesses.
Now, before God, the source of all life, and before Jesus Christ, who witnessed to his noble profession of faith before Pontius Pilate, I charge you
to do all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no human being has seen or is able to see: to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The apostle calls Timothy, a "man of God," a title that underlines the fact that the disciple no longer belongs to himself, but to God, to whose service he has dedicated his life. The Christian can no longer serve two masters. He has to choose God - this is what Timothy did - as his only Lord. And, as if running a race, he has to reach for the finish line of the virtues of justice, godliness, faith, charity, hope, and gentleness. This is the goal in front of the disciples and for which they should run: the perfection of the interior person with all of the human and Christian virtues. Christian life is compared to a race run by faith. And the trophy to be won is eternal life. Paul tells Timothy that in his great benevolence God himself called him to this life, and he responded with a beautiful profession of faith made in the presence of many witnesses. Perhaps Paul is referring to the day of his baptism or his consecration to the priesthood. Like Timothy, every Christian needs to run this race. We are all called to take part it in and to respond generously. The apostle addresses Timothy one more time, calling as witnesses God who gives life and Jesus Christ who, under Pontius Pilate, testified to his love to the point of giving his life on the cross. He charges him to be faithful to the teachings he has received until Jesus comes back into the universal judgment. Jesus’ return is intended here as an "epiphany," that is, as the full manifestation of love. The first and most important responsibility for a Christian is to keep the faith and live it out according to the Gospel. We do not know when the "the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ" will occur. Only God knows the "the right time." We are called to be vigilant in faith and generous in charity. The apostle’s exhortation culminates with praise for God: He is above all transience and dwells in unapproachable light. Our minds cannot understand God, but prayer brings us close to Him and lets us feel his strength and enjoy his love.
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
