Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Colossians 3, 18-4,1
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as you should in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be sharp with them.
Children, be obedient to your parents always, because that is what will please the Lord.
Parents, do not irritate your children or they will lose heart.
Slaves, be obedient in every way to the people who, according to human reckoning, are your masters; not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please human beings, but wholeheartedly, out of respect for the Master.
Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as done for the Lord and not for human beings,
knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you his heirs. It is Christ the Lord that you are serving.
Anyone who does wrong will be repaid in kind. For there is no favouritism.
Masters, make sure that your slaves are given what is upright and fair, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The invitation to extend the newness of the Gospel that is experienced in the Christian community to every aspect of daily life (3:17) leads the apostle to the Gospel to consider the case of the family. At that time, the submission of a wife to her husband was seen as an expression of the natural order. But the apostle adds “in the Lord” to indicate that the first relationship between man and woman is the relationship marked by the love that comes from the Lord, and so submission can be understood as the fruit of each one’s mutual love for the other. Paul enters into the depths of the human being and his or her drive to be in relationship with others. The apostle asks wives to behave toward their husbands in a much more profound way than they would naturally, that is, to behave according to the Gospel, which has made their husbands “brothers” in Christ. Christian fraternity has radically dismantled every type of human hierarchy. Paul demands the same thing from the husband as from the wife. To describe the “new” relationship that should exist between the two, the apostle uses the Greek term “agape”, which refers to the bond of perfection (3:14). Spouses, in fact, should love each other as Christ loves them. And the same thing should happen with children, to whom Paul presents Jesus as a model of obedience. And Paul asks fathers not to be too severe in correcting their children. In summary, we could say that the love of Christ should preside over family relationships. Even slaves, who were part of the family, should follow this Gospel logic. In this case too, the apostle changes social order at its roots without upsetting it: he urges slaves to behave according to the Gospel, that is, to act in fear of the Lord, who gives meaning and value to both the life of the slave and that of his master. Even if they remain in their position, slaves are given that interior freedom that allows them to obey their masters with their “heart.” Slaves should not, however, consider their masters above Jesus, but as brothers in the Gospel. Everyone, whether master or slave, will have to appear before the divine Judge, responsible for his or her life (v. 25). And we will all be judged on our love. This is why masters should not abuse their privileges. They should remember that they also have a Master in heaven who will judge them with justice.
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
