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
1 John 4, 1-6
My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world.
This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God,
and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world.
Children, you are from God and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are from the world, and therefore the world inspires what they say, and listens to them.
We are from God; whoever recognises God listens to us; anyone who is not from God refuses to listen to us. This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John invites Christians not to let themselves be seduced by false prophets, that is, by those who do not accept the Gospel or do not proclaim it in its entirety. He affirms that faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God made man, is the distinguishing foundation of Christian faith, "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God." When the apostle uses the term "flesh," he is not just talking about the incarnation; he is also referring to the "weakness" of the human condition that was taken on by Jesus. And by doing so he shows how far God’s love for men and women goes. The apostle Paul describes the same thing in the hymn found in the letter to the Philippians, Christ Jesus "Though he was in the form of God...he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (2:6-7). The idea that God chose the weakness of the flesh must have sounded scandalous to the Gnostic current of the time, but it still sounds scandalous today to those who think that salvation comes from human strength, from being powerful according to this world, and from having power and riches, rather than from the cross. The cross continues to be a stumbling-block for those who do not believe. And yet the cross is the logical conclusion of God’s love, which lowered itself beyond the limits of possibility in order to save men and women from the abyss of sin and death. In Christ’s cross love reached its culmination and so the cross became a wellspring of life and salvation. In the cross of Christ love reaches its height and thus it becomes the source of life and salvation. By accepting the cross, Christians receive salvation and learn to love as Jesus loved. Thus, together with the Lord, they defeat the power of evil that keeps men and women enslaved in its service. This happens not because of our merits or because we are better than others, but rather because in Jesus we are "from God" and therefore we have already defeated evil "for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." Love conquers the world and saves men and women from lies.
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
