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
Jeremiah 4, 16-31
Report it to the nations, proclaim it to Jerusalem, 'Enemies are coming from a distant country, shouting their war cry against the towns of Judah;
they surround her like watchmen round a field because she has rebelled against me', Yahweh declares.
'Your own behaviour and actions have brought this on yourself. Your wickedness, how bitter, has stabbed you to the heart!'
In the pit of my stomach how great my agony! Walls of my heart! My heart is throbbing! I cannot keep quiet, for I have heard the trumpet call, the battle cry.
Ruin on ruin is the news: the whole land is laid waste, my tents are suddenly destroyed, in one moment all that sheltered me.
How long must I see the standard and hear the trumpet call?
'This is because my people are stupid, they do not know me, they are slow-witted children, they have no understanding, they are clever enough at doing wrong, but do not know how to do right.'
I looked to the earth -- it was a formless waste; to the heavens, and their light had gone.
I looked to the mountains -- they were quaking and all the hills rocking to and fro.
I looked -- there was no one at all, the very birds of heaven had all fled.
I looked -- the fruitful land was a desert, all its towns in ruins before Yahweh, before his burning anger.
Yes, Yahweh has said this, 'The whole country will be laid waste, though I shall not annihilate it completely.
For this, the earth will go into mourning and the heavens above grow dark. For I have spoken, I have decided, I shall not change my mind or go back on it.'
At the din of horseman and archer the entire city takes to flight: some plunge into the thickets, others scale the rocks; every town is abandoned, not a single person is left there.
And, once despoiled, what are you going to do? You may dress yourself in scarlet, put on ornaments of gold, enlarge your eyes with paint but you make yourself pretty in vain. Your former lovers disdain you, your life is what they are seeking.
Yes, I hear screams like those of a woman in labour, anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first child; they are the screams of the daughter of Zion, gasping, hands outstretched, 'Unhappy me! I am dying, the murderers have killed me!'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
“The whole land is laid waste,” the prophet bitterly notes. These words seem to describe many countries in our contemporary world that are torn apart by war, violence, and injustice. Jeremiah describes the tragic consequences of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon. He can no longer put up with such a heart-rending situation, and so he offers the spark of hope that the Lord was lighting even in the midst of that tragedy. Just as they did for the people of Israel back then, the words of the prophet remind us today that the Lord is not indifferent to what happens to his children nor is he a stranger to human history. Indeed he is deeply part of it. The prophet himself is a sign of this fact. He is moved to the depths of his heart by war and cut to the marrow by what he sees happening. The Word of God helps to read the signs of the times, to enter into the depths of history and the sorrows of the world. Without it we would be caught up in ourselves, feeling like victims ready to justify ourselves and quick to accuse others. We often look at the world with the foolishness the prophet describes, that is, blaming God for the evils that in truth we cause. “I looked,” the prophet repeats four times. God “looks.” He does not flee from evil, from the waste, or from destruction. As the Lord is involved in the history of men and women, so disciples cannot be indifferent to the situations of the world where they live. God rebukes his people harshly, because they do not know how to look and understand. We need to make the Lord’s gaze our own, because the Lord does not turn away from the desolation and the emptiness created by war and violence. God looks at the world and feels compassion. None of us, and especially none of the poor, ever finds the Lord distracted. And that is what the Lord asks all of those who entrust themselves to him.
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
