Memory of the prophet Isaiah Read more
Memory of the prophet Isaiah
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Galatians 5, 1-12
Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.
I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.
I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;
once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.
We are led by the Spirit to wait in the confident hope of saving justice through faith,
since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- only faith working through love.
You began your race well; who came to obstruct you and stop you obeying the truth?
It was certainly not any prompting from him who called you!
A pinch of yeast ferments the whole batch.
But I feel sure that, united in the Lord, you will not be led astray, and that anyone who makes trouble with you will be condemned, no matter who he is.
And I, brothers -- if I were still preaching circumcision, why should I still be persecuted? For then the obstacle which is the cross would have no point any more.
I could wish that those who are unsettling you would go further and mutilate themselves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After having demonstrated that justice comes from faith and not from the works of the law, Paul wants to draw out the moral consequences of this for Christian life. The apostle affirms that Christ freed us so that we might live in freedom. This is why Paul urges his readers to "stand firm," to keep themselves free and not fall again under the "yoke of slavery." With authoritative language he puts the Galatians on guard against circumcising themselves, because by doing so they would render the Gospel of freedom useless. The Christian who, by circumcising himself, starts down the road to justification through the law not only excludes himself from Christ’s help and falls under the curse of the law but, breaking every bond, he detaches himself from Christ, "in whom" he had found himself through his baptism (Gal 3:27ff). The term used by Paul to express the "cutting off from Christ" also contains the concept of being ruined, that is, of being annihilated. Whoever tries to justify him or herself through the law seals his or her own ruin, while whoever follows the Gospel lives by the Spirit. It is not circumcision or non-circumcision that saves us because it is not our works but only the Spirit who works in us that saves us. That is why the apostle affirms that "faith works through love." Faith and love are linked by an unbreakable bond: love makes faith work and faith welcomes love in the heart. Paul cannot understand why the Galatians that were running so well before have blocked their own road. He reminds them that it only takes a few words against the Gospel to badly leaven an entire life. But faced with this possibility, Paul trusts in the Lord. He has faith that the Galatians will mend their ways and hopes that his Letter will convince them to do so. His judgment of those who put the spiritual life of the community in danger is very severe. They will suffer God’s punishment.
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
