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
Jeremiah 2, 1-7
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
'Go and shout this in Jerusalem's ears: 'Yahweh says this: "I remember your faithful love, the affection of your bridal days, when you followed me through the desert, through a land unsown.
Israel was sacred to Yahweh; the first-fruits of his harvest; all who ate this incurred guilt, disaster befell them, Yahweh declares." '
Listen to Yahweh's word, House of Jacob and all the families of the House of Israel.
Yahweh says this, 'What did your ancestors find wrong in me for them to have deserted me so far as to follow Futility and become futile themselves?
They never said, "Where is Yahweh, who brought us out of Egypt and led us through the desert, through a land of plains and ravines, through a land of drought, of shadow dark as death, a land through which no one passes and where no human being lives?"
I brought you to a country of plenty, to enjoy its produce and good things; but when you entered you defiled my country and made my heritage loathsome.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage is like a cry from God to wake his people up from their slumber and remind them of the history of his love for them. Gregory the Great said that Scripture is God’s love letter to us. And in fact, every time we listen to it we can recognize and savour the great affection with which the Lord has watched over our lives and the loving concern he has for us. God has drawn us to him and we have followed. The Lord feels the need to “shout out” his love for his people through the prophet, so that they will not forget the great history of goodness that they have lived with their Lord. Unfortunately, it is easy for the people of Israel, as it is for us, to fix their attention on what other people owe them and ignore their many debts. We can even go so far as to boast of our merits before God, like the Pharisees in the Gospel parable, forgetting the gifts and the grace we have received. How often do we repeat the very things Israel did! During the journey through the desert they let themselves be guided by God and experienced his mercy, but once they entered the promised land, they grew comfortable in their security, becoming obsessed by the pursuit of wealth and well-being. This attitude led them to forget God and his mercy. Pride and a sense of self-sufficiency makes us forgetful of God’s works and inevitably lead us away from him. But God forces his people to answer: “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” Yes, what wrong can we find in God to justify leaving him and following ourselves? It is essential for us to ask ourselves this question. Otherwise we will find ourselves empty handed, having preferred to follow ourselves rather than listen to the Lord. Perhaps all of the disappointments we have experienced are the consequence of a life in which the Lord counts for little, because we are all wrapped up in ourselves.
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
