Memory of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome. With her we remember all who are mentally ill. Read more
Memory of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome. With her we remember all who are mentally ill.
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 9, 16-25
Yahweh Sabaoth says this, 'Prepare to call for the mourning women! Send for those who are best at it!
Let them lose no time in raising the lament over us! Let our eyes rain tears, our eyelids run with weeping!
A lament makes itself heard in Zion, "What ruin is ours, what utter shame! For we must leave the country, our homes have been knocked down!" '
Now listen, you women, to Yahweh's word, let your ears take in the word his own mouth speaks. Teach your daughters how to wail and teach one another this dirge,
'Death has climbed in at our windows, and made its way into our palaces; it has cut down the children in the street, the young people in the squares-
Speak! Yahweh declares this -- human corpses are strewn like dung in the open field, like sheaves left by the reaper, with no one to gather them.'
Yahweh says this, 'Let the sage not boast of wisdom, nor the valiant of valour, nor the wealthy of riches!
But let anyone who wants to boast, boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, who acts with faithful love, justice, and uprightness on earth; yes, these are what please me,' Yahweh declares.
'Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh:
Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the men with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all those nations, and the whole House of Israel too, are uncircumcised at heart.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
What can be done with a devastated city, where the people are not aware of the evil that is done there? The prophet’s call is clear: we need to sing a funeral dirge, as people used to do when someone died, even employing professional mourners. Yes, a city full of inhabitants who are far from the truth, where people commit injustices and are not concerned about others, is like being dead to God. What good is it to boast? “Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth,” Jeremiah says. Pride of any kind does not give life, it does not lengthen our days, and it does not give security. It is an illusion. And yet we often think that wisdom, strength, and wealth are all we need to be safe, to avoid being struck by evil, to believe we are already saved. Jesus repeatedly warns the rich to be on guard, (“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation,” (Lk 6:24), and goes as far as to say that “it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:23). That “woe” is not a threat as much as a description of the condition of the rich as opposed to the “poor,” for whom the kingdom of God is intended. Pride distances us from the Lord so greatly that it deprives us of his very life. And so Jeremiah continues, “But let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight.” To have understanding is to know God, to love him, and to live with him. This is the only boasting that leads to life, because it makes us like the Lord, men and women who practice kindness, righteousness, and justice. This is what the world needs, not proud men and women who live to affirm themselves. But we have to “circumcise” our hearts, that is, change ourselves profoundly by listening to the Lord who speaks to us.
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
