Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18
We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, to make sure that you do not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope.
We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that in the same way God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
We can tell you this from the Lord's own teaching, that we who are still alive for the Lord's coming will not have any advantage over those who have fallen asleep.
At the signal given by the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise,
and only after that shall we who remain alive be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. This is the way we shall be with the Lord for ever.
With such thoughts as these, then, you should encourage one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After having exhorted the Thessalonians to behave in a manner worthy of the vocation they have received, Paul speaks about the fate of the dead. It is not good to remain in uncertainty, as do those who do not believe. There was evidently an air of sadness which cast its shadow on the Thessalonians’ hope. Paul exhorts them to have new feelings: just as we do not become sad about our death because we know that we will rise again, so should we not "grieve" for those who are already dead. They too will rise again. Grief for the death of our dear ones should not leave us in despair. Christian hope is not based on philosophical theories, but on the certainty of Jesus’ resurrection. This is what the apostles have handed down to us in their preaching after having been witnesses: "he who was dead" truly lived among us, in flesh and blood, although in a spiritual way. All this is not part of the natural world; it is accessible only through faith. From the mystery of Christ’s resurrection, we pass on to that of our own resurrection and of those who have preceded us. Paul writes to the Philippians: we await from heaven that "the Lord Jesus Christ will transform the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself" (Phil 3:20). Creation will then be freed from "its bondage to decay" (Rom 8:21), and we shall have a "spiritual body" (enlivened by the Holy Spirit) (1Cor 15:44). Everyone, whether still alive here on earth or already deceased, finds their hope in Jesus’ resurrection. Perhaps someone among the Thessalonians thought that whoever had already died would not participate in the "parousia" that the Thessalonians thought was about to occur. Paul makes clear that resurrection from the dead applies to all the believers. The risen Christ’s "second" coming will be nothing other than the full manifestation of the Easter which has already occurred. The "order" of eternity, which is Christ himself, firstly refers to those already dead, and then come "the living, the survivors, we who shall be snatched with them among the clouds," that is, transferred to God’s own heaven. And "we will be with the Lord forever" (4:17). Paul says nothing about the tragic end of the world and of sin, nor about the new world and the new life. In fact the End and the end of history will come when we are all in Christ. Paul exhorts us to console ourselves with these words. The future has already begun with Christ’s resurrection.
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
