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 John 2, 18-22
Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now many Antichrists have already come; from this we know that it is the final hour.
They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us.
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge.
I have written to you not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you are well aware of it, and because no lie can come from the truth.
Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John’s letter, which from the beginning has refuted those who sow division in the community, now hardens its tone. The presence of false prophets identified with the antichrist leads John to say that "the last times" have come. Jesus himself had warned the disciples about this on several occasions. In Mark we read, "False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect" (Mk 13:22). The same warning appears in the letters of Paul, Peter, and Jude. But in saying that the last times had come, John did not mean that history was about to end; he meant that the time of decision had come, the time to definitively choose Jesus and the Gospel. This is true for every generation of Christians, indeed, it is true for every believer. We are all tested during our lives by the enemies of the Gospel. We have to decide to be with Jesus; the decision can not be put off. John points out two traits that characterize the false prophets - they divide the community and deny the Gospel. That is why he writes, "They went out from us, but they did not belong to us." They do not have "the anointing received by the Holy One"; that is, they do not have the Spirit of Jesus that is poured into the hearts of the disciples. It is not enough to be in the community physically, we have to live it in the spirit and be involved in it with our inner life. Knowledge, on which John insists, includes faithfulness to Jesus’ teachings as they are transmitted by the Church. She is also a spiritual and loving link with the Lord, in order not to be deceived by those who affirm their own truth. This repeated exhortation warns even us from following the common thinking, accepting it and decreasing our fidelity to the Word of God. The apostle urges his readers to stay strong in the Gospel, because observing it keeps us in communion with the Father.
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
