Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
James 5, 1-6
Well now, you rich! Lament, weep for the miseries that are coming to you.
Your wealth is rotting, your clothes are all moth-eaten.
All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be a witness against you and eat into your body. It is like a fire which you have stored up for the final days.
Can you hear crying out against you the wages which you kept back from the labourers mowing your fields? The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Sabaoth.
On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart's content.
It was you who condemned the upright and killed them; they offered you no resistance.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
James seems to be referring to the "woes" that Jesus pronounced against the rich and those who live dissolute lives: richness are not only consumed by the rust of life and destroyed by the fire of death, they are also incapable of giving happiness to those who possess them. Besides, we often read in the Gospel that happiness does not come from the goods we possess but from the love we have for the Lord and for our brothers and sisters. James warns those who may have forgotten the urgency for conversion that the "last days" began at the moment of Jesus’ resurrection. God’s judgment is already present, and it concerns every Christian and every human being from now on. Riches are clearly connected to injustice and exploitation. In a strong and direct way, the apostle invites us to accumulate treasures in heaven, treasures that are linked to other people and free from the logic of possession. It is an invitation not to submit to the dictatorship of materialism that makes all people slaves of money and riches and for which they are often ready to do anything, even to tramping over everyone, especially the poor. The criterion used by God, however, turns every worldly measure upside-down, as we read in the Magnificat when Mary sings, "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." James’ invitation to "weep" and "wail" is an exhortation to convert to God and to live a more just and generous life. These words are addressed to everyone: James, like the prophets of the First Testament, from Amos to Isaiah, has before his eyes the injustice and violence that crush the poor, and he reacts extremely harshly, affirming that every injustice will be punished by the Lord who hears the cry of the poor and oppressed. The Lord demands justice in a world where the rich live for themselves and are indifferent to the poor who die. He will come down to defend them and condemn the rich and the oppressors, as is affirmed in the whole of Scripture. All people, especially the disciples of Jesus, are called to help those who suffer the most from life’s injustices. To be indifferent is to comply with the unjust and the violent.
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
