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
Jude 1, 1-4
From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James; to those who are called, to those who are dear to God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ,
mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
My dear friends, at a time when I was eagerly looking forward to writing to you about the salvation that we all share, I felt that I must write to you encouraging you to fight hard for the faith which has been once and for all entrusted to God's holy people.
Certain people have infiltrated among you, who were long ago marked down for condemnation on this account; without any reverence they pervert the grace of our God to debauchery and deny all religion, rejecting our only Master and Lord, 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 author of the letter introduces himself as Jude, brother of James, and therefore a "cousin" of Jesus. Obviously, his relationship to James bestowed upon him a certain degree of authority in the first Christian community. Before using this title, however, the author first calls himself a "servant of Jesus Christ," a title that further qualifies him. Our "natural bonds," be they of blood or of common interests, do not determine whether or not we belong to the Christian community. Rather, it is whether we belong totally to Christ, who liberated us from the slavery, sin and death of this world, that makes us a part of the Christian community. It is Jesus who bore us into a new life and to whom we all belong. The Christian belongs totally to Christ and is therefore a servant of the Lord. This title is charged with so much meaning that the apostle Paul made it his common designation. The true glory of a Christian lies in being a servant of Christ and the Gospel. Jude writes this letter near the end of the year 90 and sends it "to those who are called, who are beloved in God and kept safe for Jesus Christ" (1:1). Writing to the "called" (that is, to the Christians) he underlines God’s initiative: Christians are those who are called by God to form one family, and to be loved and preserved by him. The foundation of every community, and of every believer, is being loved and cared for by God. Called in the name of the Lord to look after His children, the apostle writes to a group of Christian communities that are running the risk of falling into error. He calls them "beloved" because he himself radiates toward them the same love as the Lord’s. And, because of this love, he addresses them with a letter to support them in remaining steadfast in the one faith and, even more, that they should "contend" for it. In fact, Christian life is always a struggle between good and evil. Christians should have no other treasure than the faith that they received once and for all, and that they should pass on from generation to generation. There are, however, those who are called false teachers who want to provoke division. Integrating themselves into the community, they want to divide it both by their sinful conduct and distortion of the Gospel. The apostle warns that in this way one can end up rejecting Jesus, who remains the only "master" and of whom we are all servants.
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
