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Liturgy of the Sunday
Word of god every day

Liturgy of the Sunday

30th - Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memory of St. Jerome, doctor of the Church, who died in Bethlehem in 420. He translated the Bible into the Latin language. Prayer that the voice of the Scripture may be heard in every language.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday
Sunday, September 30

Homily

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is continuing to speak with the disciples while he journeys toward Jerusalem. Still alive is this scene from last Sunday when Jesus asked the disciples what they were arguing about along the road after he told them about his passion. They did not respond and they had good reason not to say a word. They were, in fact, arguing about who would be the greatest in spite of Jesus’ tragic words about his death. In this Sunday’s passage, John, one of the twelve disciples who remained silent, speaks up this time and says self-assuredly, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." Poor John, he did not understand anything. And Jesus, once again, gathers them around him, guides and corrects them by patiently teaching them the Gospel way of understanding and judging life. In fact, this is what happens every Sunday when the Lord gathers the disciples and speaks to their hearts, sowing in them the good seed and pulling out the bitter roots that poison their and others’ life.
It is not rare that we think the same as John. In truth, this is not the way of defending truth. Generally, such an attitude is employed to defend one’s privileges, position or convictions, without looking at the substance of the things, that is, the salvation of people. We cannot defend truth by safeguarding our privileges and even passing over people. The Book of Numbers, to demonstrate how deeply rooted this mentality is in our hearts, tells of an episode analogous to this Sunday’s Gospel reading that happened at the beginning of the people of Israel’s journey. Joshua is informed that two men, who were not part of the seventy leaders of Israel and who had no mandate, had begun to prophesy. Joshua has an immediate reaction. Irritated and worried, he runs to Moses to ask him to prevent the two from speaking. Moses responds to the young, zealous leader, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!" (Num 11:29).
What worries Joshua, as well as John and the other disciples (including many of us), is not the healing of the sick and the liberation of those possessed by demons, but one’s own group or institution, or better yet, one’s own interests and the power that that group or institution guarantees to its members. This is not Jesus’ way of thinking. His heart is much wider than his disciples’ hearts; his mercy for the weak and poor is without boundaries. Jesus responds decisively to John and the others: "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us." Good, no matter where and by whom it is done, comes from God. Whoever helps the needy, supports the weak, comforts the desperate, welcomes others, promotes friendship, works for peace and is ready to forgive, is always one who comes from God.
God breaks through every category and is present everywhere wherever there is love, goodness, peace and mercy. God is in the thirsty person who is given a cup of water, in the hungry person who is offered a piece of bread, in the despairing person who hears a word of love. The Church cherishes this Gospel truth even if she is not the sole proprietor and, for the clarity of this gift that God has given her, the Church must preach and practice it with boldness. It would truly be sad to restrict the miraculous power of God’s mercy to the narrow confines of our schemes and logic. Does Jesus not say, "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes" (Jn 3:8)? The Spirit of God is truly great and boundless. Blessed are we if we know how to recognize the spirit and welcome it! More than that, the apostle says, we must be attentive not to sadden it. This is why certain disputes about this or that experience that does not enter into our interpretative framework are foolish.
We need a wider vision that helps us to intuit the workings of God’s Spirit in the world. We should not be sad, as the apostle John was, if we see that other persons who do not belong to our group are casting out demons. Jesus rejoiced seeing that many others were being healed and returning to health: it is written that the Lord’s joy is a person who is living. From the first day of creation to the culminating moment when he created man and woman, God’s happiness was immense. The Biblical author cannot but note, "And God saw that it was good." This too should be the disciple’s joy. Yes, we should all rejoice in the good that we see in the world no matter who does it and where it happens. Good always comes from God, who is the "source of every goodness," as is sung in the liturgy.
Jesus’ harsh words spoken in the second part of this Sunday’s Gospel reading indicate, with hyperbolic expressions, which is the way of the disciple, "If your hand... or foot ... or eye causes you to stumble, tear them out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God lame than to be thrown into hell." To be "of scandal" means to cause someone who is weak or needy to stumble and fall or even not to support them. We think that happiness is found in protecting ourselves, in walking unharmed through this world without ever losing anything. To the contrary, Jesus says that happiness is found in spending our life for the Gospel, in giving one’s own life for others. Let us recall the expression attributed to Jesus by Paul, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). For this reason it is worth making sacrifices. Love for others, besides, always requires some kind of severing and demands some kind of renunciation. This is obviously not about anything close to self-mutilation, but rather about changes to be made in our behaviour and heart. In fact, we often have our eyes directed only on ourselves, our hands working only for our own purposes, and our feet moving us in the direction of our own business. Let us take at least one eye off of ourselves and we will certainly be happier. Let us use at least one hand to help someone who is suffering and we will taste the same joy that Jesus tastes. Let us walk along the path of the Gospel and we will be witnesses to God’s love. In this way, we will understand what Jesus is telling us, "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for the sake of the Gospel will find it."

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR

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!

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR