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
John 8, 31-42
To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples;
you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
They answered, 'We are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, "You will be set free?" '
Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave.
Now a slave has no permanent standing in the household, but a son belongs to it for ever.
So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.
I know that you are descended from Abraham; but you want to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
What I speak of is what I have seen at my Father's side, and you too put into action the lessons you have learnt from your father.
They repeated, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them: If you are Abraham's children, do as Abraham did.
As it is, you want to kill me, a man who has told you the truth as I have learnt it from God; that is not what Abraham did.
You are doing your father's work. They replied, 'We were not born illegitimate, the only father we have is God.'
Jesus answered: If God were your father, you would love me, since I have my origin in God and have come from him; I did not come of my own accord, but he sent me.
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
This Gospel passage should be understood in the context of the tension that arose between the first Christian community and Judaism. The first Christians were put to the test by the hostility of the Jews who claim to keep the Mosaic law. The evangelist John reminds his disciples to "continue" in Jesus’ word - not just to listen to the word, but to continue dwelling in it as in one’s own home. The word received and heard with faithfulness is the true dwelling where Christians live: their life is all wrapped up in the Gospel, inspired by those words, enlightned by that light and sustained by the strength coming from it. Christian liberty means nothing else than following the Gospel, following it "witout additions" as St. Francis loved to say. The Gospel is a light and sweet yoke that delivers us from the heavy chains of the insinct to love only ourselves and to keep everything for ourselves. Freedom does not come from the law or from the strength of our will, much less from belonging to something, even to the "descendants of Abraham." It only comes from following Jesus with one’s entire life. When Jesus preached this, the Jews rebelled against him because in this way he called them slaves. In fact, there is a kind of presumption proper to slaves, which is precisely that of denying that they are slaves, because sometimes being a slave is comfortable; it offers a shelter from responsibility and from the effort of constantly having to figure out which direction to walk in. "The truth will make you free," Jesus says. Seeing ourselves as the Gospel shows us to be - that is, poor, weak, and limited - allows us to encounter the Lord as a good and strong Father who frees us from evil. It is not enough to say, "Abraham’s children" to truly be one. The true filiality that makes us part of God’s family and God’s friends comes from "doing the work of the Father," Jesus says. In fact, it is not those who say, "Lord, Lord" who will enter into the kingdom of the Father, but those who make his word the foundation of their lives.
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
