Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
1 Corinthians 7, 17-24
Anyway let everyone continue in the part which the Lord has allotted to him, as he was when God called him. This is the rule that I give to all the churches.
If a man who is called has already been circumcised, then he must stay circumcised; when an uncircumcised man is called, he may not be circumcised.
To be circumcised is of no importance, and to be uncircumcised is of no importance; what is important is the keeping of God's commandments.
Everyone should stay in whatever state he was in when he was called.
So, if when you were called, you were a slave, do not think it matters -- even if you have a chance of freedom, you should prefer to make full use of your condition as a slave.
You see, anyone who was called in the Lord while a slave, is a freeman of the Lord; and in the same way, anyone who was free when called, is a slave of Christ.
You have been bought at a price; do not be slaves now to any human being.
Each one of you, brothers, is to stay before God in the state in which you were called.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Paul is well aware of the fact that he is writing to a community that is still at the beginning of its spiritual itinerary. One might say that it is a young community, and Paul feels the need to call it back to the heart of the faith. The problem is not to subvert everything; it is not to let ourselves be swept away by an obsession for change without ever transforming our hearts. Instead, the apostle urges everyone to “remain” in his or her own state. Salvation does not come from our position or from the role that we find ourselves in every day; rather, it only comes from observing God’s commandments and obeying his Word. The apostle briefly deals with the question of circumcision. He does not condemn it, obviously, but neither is it the source of salvation. He also touches on slavery. The freedom given by Jesus is not an “external” reality, but something much deeper and more radical, so much so that we can be slaves to sin even if we are socially free. Paul says, “For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ” (v. 22). What really counts is for our hearts to belong to the Lord. Consequently, it is not simply a matter of changing our status in life, but converting our hearts to the Lord and becoming his disciples by entrusting our entire lives to Him alone.
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
