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, 17-21
Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.
In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.
Let us love, then, because he first loved us.
Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.
Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The audacity of the apostle in saying that love among Christians is perfect underscores the originality of evangelic love (agape), which is not the work of humans, but the love of God poured out in the heart of the believers. It is a love that indivisibly binds the Christian with God and his or her brothers and sisters. Christian love creates a circular relationship between God and Christian brothers and sisters that begins with God’s "abiding" in us. It is Jesus who gives us the example, "Because as he is, so are we in this world." The words recall those of Paul, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me." The perfect love of Christians is not the work of men and women. It is a gift that Christians receive from on high that should neither bind nor sadden us, but instead allows us to work in its liberating strength. Once again the apostle insists that we can love because God loved us first. And, as every page of the Bible shows clearly, this is never an abstract or empty love. On the contrary, this love is always made real by loving men and women, beginning with the weakest. And if God’s love is like this, it is impossible to maintain that we love God without loving our brothers and sisters. Only a liar could say such a thing. The apostle is quite clear on the matter, "Those who do not love a brother or a sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." Love for God is indivisible from love for man and woman. This conviction, which reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ, runs through the whole of Scripture: we must not only love those who love us, but we must also love our enemies. Then love will reach perfection.
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
