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 10, 14-33
For that reason, my dear friends, have nothing to do with the worship of false gods.
I am talking to you as sensible people; weigh up for yourselves what I have to say.
The blessing-cup, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ; and the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
And as there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf.
Now compare the natural people of Israel: is it not true that those who eat the sacrifices share the altar?
What does this mean? That the dedication of food to false gods amounts to anything? Or that false gods themselves amount to anything?
No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons as well; you cannot have a share at the Lord's table and the demons' table as well.
Do we really want to arouse the Lord's jealousy; are we stronger than he is?
'Everything is permissible'; maybe so, but not everything does good. True, everything is permissible, but not everything builds people up.
Nobody should be looking for selfish advantage, but everybody for someone else's.
Eat anything that is sold in butchers' shops; there is no need to ask questions for conscience's sake,
since To the Lord belong the earth and all it contains.
If an unbeliever invites you to a meal, go if you want to, and eat whatever is put before you; you need not ask questions of conscience first.
But if someone says to you, 'This food has been offered in sacrifice,' do not eat it, out of consideration for the person that told you, for conscience's sake-
not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person's. Why should my freedom be governed by somebody else's conscience?
Provided that I accept it with gratitude, why should I be blamed for eating food for which I give thanks?
Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Never be a cause of offence, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God,
just as I try to accommodate everybody in everything, not looking for my own advantage, but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved.
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
The apostle returns to the issue of meat sacrificed to idols and urges the Corinthians to flee from idolatry - that is, not to put themselves at the service of the idols of this world. And there are many idols to whom we sometimes make offerings and on whose altars we sacrifice our lives. It is enough to think of money, careers, power, and the absolute primacy of the ego; countless human victims are sacrificed on these altars. With paternal love, the apostle urges, “My dear friends, flee from the worship of idols” (v. 14). It is not a matter of condemning the things of the world. The apostle considers them good: “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s” (v. 26). The problem is that we should not be slaves. Paul quickly moves on to the address the mystery of the Eucharist, which is the only altar around which Christians are called to gather. It is the altar that frees us from all other altars. The Eucharist is the cornerstone of the Church’s life and the source of communion between believers. Participation in the one bread and one cup makes one body out of many: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (v. 17). Saint Augustine wisely comments, “In this bread you see what you are and receive what you are.” In fact, the Eucharist transforms those who receive it: it makes the Church, building it up as one body. It is the path of true edification. Participation in the Eucharistic liturgy allows us to dine at Christ’s table and so makes us his imitators. Those who nourish themselves with the body of Christ are transformed in the body of Christ and therefore cannot behave differently from Him. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” (v. 31). This is what Jesus did, he whose food was to do the entire will of the Father. And this is also the way for the disciple, our way.
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
