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 5, 13-20
I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Our fearlessness towards him consists in this, that if we ask anything in accordance with his will he hears us.
And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him, we know that we already possess whatever we have asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to this brother -- provided that it is not a deadly sin. There is sin that leads to death and I am not saying you must pray about that.
Every kind of wickedness is sin, but not all sin leads to death.
We are well aware that no one who is a child of God sins, because he who was born from God protects him, and the Evil One has no hold over him.
We are well aware that we are from God, and the whole world is in the power of the Evil One.
We are well aware also that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know the One who is true. We are in the One who is true as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and this is eternal life. Children, be on your guard against false gods.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
At the end of his letter, the apostle retraces the final words of the forth Gospel and reassures Christians of the happy certainty that they are already saved. This firm trust is based on faith in Jesus, who answers every prayer. Indeed, the apostle says, Jesus answers our prayers even before they are spoken. These words should always be understood within the horizon of love. From here comes the admonishment to correct the brothers and sisters who stain themselves with "what is not a mortal sin", that is, with those sins that wound fraternal life. And part of fraternal correction is praying that those who sin might return to the Lord and come back into communion with their brothers and sisters. The apostle’s judgment of those who fatally break communion is much more severe, even if we should not conclude from the letter that we ought to abandon those brothers and sisters who have broken communion. The Lord Jesus invited his disciples to pray even for their enemies, and certainly we should never stop praying for anyone, even these latter. In any case, the apostle reminds Christians to be aware of the opposition that the evil one continues to work against the children of God. Nonetheless we are protected by the Lord, and "the evil one does not touch" us. The only demand the apostle makes of Christians is that they not distance themselves from the Lord and that they not dedicate their lives to other idols. Instead they ought to guard themselves from them and turn in prayer only to the Lord, who loves us so much that he gave his life for us and for the world. The conclusion of the Letter shows John’s concern facing the easiness with which people follow the idols of this world that disguise themselves according to the time and fashions. It is an old concern in the Bible in which we read the request to Israel to choose between God and the idols of the nations. Yes, the Letter ends and yet it poses an essential question: to choose between God and the idols of the world. In a world of conforming people, Christians are called to make a choice for the lord in a daily decisive way.
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
