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 Corinthians 5, 1-10
For we are well aware that when the tent that houses us on earth is folded up, there is a house for us from God, not made by human hands but everlasting, in the heavens.
And in this earthly state we do indeed groan,
longing to put on our heavenly home over the present one; if indeed we are to be found clothed rather than stripped bare.
Yes, indeed, in this present tent, we groan under the burden, not that we want to be stripped of our covering, but because we want to be covered with a second garment on top, so that what is mortal in us may be swallowed up by life.
It is God who designed us for this very purpose, and he has given us the Spirit as a pledge.
We are always full of confidence, then, realising that as long as we are at home in the body we are exiled from the Lord,
guided by faith and not yet by sight;
we are full of confidence, then, and long instead to be exiled from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
And so whether at home or exiled, we make it our ambition to please him.
For at the judgement seat of Christ we are all to be seen for what we are, so that each of us may receive what he has deserved in the body, matched to whatever he has done, good or bad.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul compares the Christian life to a tent in which a Bedouin lives and is dismantled when it’s time to move on. Death is a bit like the moment of moving from one location to another. Really we are on earth as pilgrims, as nomads. There comes the time to move because our earthly home “is destroyed.” But the Lord has prepared for us a “house”, “not made with hands”, “eternal”. It is the “house” of heaven. Also Jesus had spoken of a dwelling that the Father has prepared for us: Do not let your hearts be troubled. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. I go to prepare a place for you” (Jn 14:1-3). But in the words of Paul this means rather a “new body” which is given to us by God. It is the gift of the resurrection of our body. The apostle continues with a new image. He no longer speaks of a house but of “new clothing” that the Lord gives us. Death, unfortunately, divests us of life. But the Lord comes to our help and covers us with immortality. But if we will have the complete clothing at our resurrection from the dead, we have the “down payment” now. The Spirit poured into our hearts is the deposit, namely the first stage of that clothing which we will receive in full at the moment of resurrection. The apostle adds that in this time we are as if in exile, far from our homeland, but we do not journey aimlessly, nor do we fumble in the dark. We do not as yet have the full view but faith guides us on the journey of our life. Paul expresses the desire to live definitively with the Lord, as he had already written in the first Letter to the Thessalonians, addressing the theme of resurrection: “And so we will be with the Lord forever” (4:17). There in fact is our eternal dwelling that God has prepared for us. On the other hand, the apostle does not withdraw from the task of living worthily and of pleasing God in this world. From now on in fact we are called to be clothed with the sentiments of Christ. Only then will there be no fear of arriving at the final judgement where each one must answer for his actions before the Lord. The tension between the present and the future that awaits us plays out in a life of faith which is, exactly, the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Heb 11:1).
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
