Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
1 Corinthians 9, 1-18
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
Even if to others I am not an apostle, to you at any rate I am, for you are the seal of my apostolate in the Lord.
To those who want to interrogate me, this is my answer.
Have we not every right to eat and drink?
And every right to be accompanied by a Christian wife, like the other apostles, like the brothers of the Lord, and like Cephas?
Are Barnabas and I the only ones who have no right to stop working?
What soldier would ever serve in the army at his own expense? And who is there who would plant a vineyard and never eat the fruit from it; or would keep a flock and not feed on the milk from his flock?
Do not think that this is merely worldly wisdom. Does not the Law say exactly the same? It is written in the Law of Moses:
You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn. Is it about oxen that God is concerned here,
or is it not said entirely for our sake? Clearly it was written for our sake, because it is right that whoever ploughs should plough with the expectation of having his share, and whoever threshes should thresh with the expectation of having his share.
If we have sown the seed of spiritual things in you, is it too much to ask that we should receive from you a crop of material things?
Others have been given such rights over you and do we not deserve more? In fact, we have never exercised this right; on the contrary, we have put up with anything rather than obstruct the gospel of Christ in any way.
Do you not realise that the ministers in the Temple get their food from the Temple, and those who serve at the altar can claim their share from the altar?
In the same way, the Lord gave the instruction that those who preach the gospel should get their living from the gospel.
However, I have never availed myself of any rights of this kind; and I have not written this to secure such treatment for myself; I would rather die than that . . . No one shall take from me this ground of boasting.
In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it.
If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me.
What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Here Paul speaks about himself and his apostolic charism. He is forced to defend himself against spiteful misunderstandings brought about by certain Christians who wanted to reduce his apostolic authority. For Paul, it was not a matter of defending a private question. In fact, by threatening his authority and not recognizing his charism, these people were putting the unity and stability of the Christian community in danger. Christian communities cannot exist without a parental reference. Like all of the other apostles and evangelists, Paul is the father of the community of Corinth. He tells them, “Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord” (v. 1-2). Consequently, he should have the right to be materially supported by the community, just as many others rightly were. But he decided to renounce this right. Not out of vainglory or an itching to do something new, but in order to emphasize his complete liberty; indeed, announcing the Gospel was something he was doing completely gratuitously. By renouncing his right to be paid, the apostle very clearly shows the gratuity of his preaching. Besides, we should add that there is no price we could pay that would earn us the Gospel or give us the right to claim God’s love. Paul’s actions do not earn him any merit. His preaching is not the fruit of his goodness or his good disposition. He has received a gift from God, an inner strength this what a “charism” is that obliges him to communicate the Gospel: “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” The only reward he claims is the right to continue to announce it freely. The apostle offers himself as a strong example of the gratuity of the Gospel for each believer, especially in a world like our present one, where everything has been commercialized.
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
