EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of Jesus crucified
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of Jesus crucified
Friday, November 16


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

2 Chronicles 26, 1-23

All the people then chose Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah.

It was he who rebuilt Elath, recovering it for Judah, after the king had fallen asleep with his ancestors.

Uzziah was sixteen years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, just as his father Amaziah had done;

he consulted God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he consulted Yahweh, God gave him success.

He went on campaign against the Philistines, demolished the walls of Gath, the walls of Jabneh and the walls of Ashdod, and built towns in the area of Ashdod and elsewhere in Philistine territory.

God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs living at Gur-Baal and the Meunites.

The Meunites paid tribute to Uzziah and his fame spread as far as the frontier of Egypt, since he kept growing stronger and stronger.

Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem, at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and fortified them.

He built towers in the desert too, and dug many storage-wells, for he had large herds in the lowlands and on the tableland, and farmers and vine dressers in the hills and fertile lands: for he loved the land.

Uzziah had a trained army ready to go on campaign, organised in companies manned as detailed by the scribe Jeiel and the staff-officer Maaseiah, and commanded by Hananiah one of the king's generals.

The heads of families of the military champions numbered in all two thousand six hundred.

Under them was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred men ready for war, a powerful force to support the king against the enemy.

Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, armour, bows and sling-stones for the entire army.

He also erected expertly contrived devices for the towers and angles of Jerusalem from which to shoot arrows and drop large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was miraculously helped to become strong.

But once he was strong, his arrogance was such that it led to his downfall; he was unfaithful to Yahweh his God by entering the Temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.

Azariah the priest with eight brave priests of Yahweh followed him in;

confronting King Uzziah, they said to him, 'Uzziah, you are not allowed to burn incense to Yahweh; only the Aaronite priests consecrated for the purpose may burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honour from Yahweh God.'

Uzziah, censer in hand to burn incense, flew into a rage. But while he was raging at the priests, a virulent skin-disease broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, in the Temple of Yahweh, there by the altar of incense.

When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests turned towards him, there was skin-disease on his forehead and they hurried him outside, and he himself was equally anxious to get out, because Yahweh had struck him.

King Uzziah was afflicted with skin-disease till his dying day. Because of this, he lived confined to his room and was excluded from the Temple of Yahweh, while Jotham his son, who was master of the palace, governed the people of the country.

The rest of the history of Uzziah, from first to last, has been written by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

Then Uzziah fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried with them in the field beside the burial ground of the kings since, it was reasoned, he was afflicted with virulent skin-disease. His son Jotham then succeeded him.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After the reign of Joash (835-796 BC) and Amaziah (796-767 BC) followed that of Uzziah (792-740 BC). According to the Chronicler, his reign is characterised by an initial period of fidelity to the Lord and then by infidelity in the last years. Uzziah became king at sixteen, he reigned for fifty-two years. The author notes that “He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done” (v. 4). He “sought the LORD” notes the Chronicler and this explains the length of the kingdom. But the author immediately adds that he held this spiritual dimension “in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God” (v. 5). This confirms the absolute need of a guide for every believer, a “spiritual father” to help him/her in seeking the Lord. It is virtually impossible to remain faithful to the Lord without someone to help us and support us in listening, discerning and acting on the teachings of the Lord. The Chronicler does not identify Zechariah, the spiritual guide of Uzziah. Perhaps the name was chosen simply because of its meaning: “The Lord remembers.” We do need someone to continuously remind us of the Word of God. So Uzziah as long as Zechariah lived, continued to seek the Lord and then to receive his blessing. The Chronicler writes: “and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper” (v. 5). Uzziah was able to experience the blessing of the Lord in the territorial expansion of the kingdom, but also in economic development and in military power. In this way he succeeded in imposing his authority, or rather the authority of the Lord, of whom he was the representative, over a number of neighbouring peoples. Many were the deeds of Uzziah, while remaining faithful to the Lord under the guidance of his spiritual master Zechariah. Evident also are the Lord's blessings in making Jerusalem and its neighbourhood stronger and more attractive, and in achieving an extraordinary development of agriculture, that Uzziah loved in a particular way. Even maintaining a large army is considered by the Chronicler as a sign of God's blessing. Unfortunately, this progress did not lead Uzziah to thank the Lord. On the contrary he let his pride prevail and he abused others. There seems to be an inexorable law: growth in power brings about growth of pride and thus leads to ruin. In the king's life there is realized what is written in the book of Proverbs: “Pride goes before destruction” (16:18). Zechariah was gone, even though the text does not tell about his death. His absence became evident immediately in the lack of wisdom into which Uzziah fell, blinded by his own successes, as if they were dependent on his merits. The pride of the believer is a grave sin already severely condemned in the Book of Deuteronomy: “When the Lord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to occupy this land’; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. 5It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfil the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors”6 (Deut 9:4-5). The infidelity of Uzziah did not consist in leaving the Lord by an act of idolatry or by allying with other nations. His sin was pride that led him to despise the Lord’s indications and to abuse his power over the priests. The Chronicler writes, “But when he had become strong, he grew proud, to his own destruction. For he was false to the Lord his God” (v. 16). And he resisted the chief priest Azariah and eighty other priests who faced him and warned him to leave the “sanctuary.” And in that moment, the moment of disobedience, leprosy broke out on his forehead. He became impure. He himself realized that he had no right to remain with the others and went out quickly. He was afflicted with leprosy until death, living in an isolated house and excluded from the temple. Pride led him to loneliness. Only the awareness of being children of the Lord enables salvation, that is, being part of the community of the Lord.

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