Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
2 Peter 1, 1-11
Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as our own, given through the saving justice of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of our Lord.
By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion.
With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding,
understanding with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion,
devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.
The possession and growth of these qualities will prevent your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from being ineffectual or unproductive.
But without them, a person is blind or short-sighted, forgetting how the sins of the past were washed away.
Instead of this, brothers, never allow your choice or calling to waver; then there will be no danger of your stumbling,
for in this way you will be given the generous gift of entry to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The apostle Peter opens his second letter with solemnity. He presents himself with the name he received from Jesus to underscore that his authority as "apostle" derives from the "name" that was given to him. But, at the same time he recalls his old name so as to not forget his humble position. The apostle knows that true authority comes from being both "servant" and "apostle" of Jesus: as apostle he is sent by the Lord upon whom all depends, and as servant he wants to make known that his mission is to be at the service of the life of the community of disciples. His words reveal that Peter is concerned because some false teachers are poisoning the life of the Christian community. He heeds his pastoral responsibility and addresses the members of the community so as to re-assert the centrality of faith in Jesus, putting them on guard from those who want to distance them from the Gospel that remains the only way to reach the "knowledge of him who called us". The Gospel word is the spring of a new life and new way of conducting ourselves as Christians. The apostle suggests a kind of spiritual itinerary for the believer so that he or she may grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus. He advises that by faith, by following the Gospel, the entire life of the Christian develops, a life that has its summit in love, in that new commandment that Jesus entrusted to his disciples. Hence, Peter writes, "You must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love." Everything concludes and becomes true fully only in love, agape, that is, more than fraternal love, philadelphia, because it is the request to live God’s same gratuitous love. Christians, therefore, are disciples who grow through listening continually and attentively to the Gospel so as to become witnesses to God’s borderless love amidst all people. The more we resemble God the more this likeness will compel us to live with the same love. True knowledge of Jesus saves believers from blindness and myopia, bringing them to love. By faithfully going along this spiritual journey as a disciple of Jesus-Peter writes-"you will never stumble".
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
