For Muslims, it is the end of the month of fasting, Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr). Read more
For Muslims, it is the end of the month of fasting, Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr).
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 15, 1-9
Yahweh said to me, 'Even if Moses and Samuel pleaded before me, I could not sympathise with this people! Drive them out of my sight; away with them!
And if they ask you, "Where shall we go?" tell them this, "Yahweh says this: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; those for captivity, to captivity!
"I shall consign them to four kinds of thing, Yahweh declares: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of heaven and wild animals of earth to devour and to destroy.
I shall make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem." '
Who is there to pity you, Jerusalem, who to grieve for you, who to go out of his way and ask how you are?
'You yourself have rejected me, Yahweh declares, you have turned your back on me; so I have stretched my hand over you and destroyed you. Tired of relenting,
I have winnowed them with a winnow at the country's gates. They have been bereft, I have destroyed my people, but they refuse to leave their ways.
I have made their widows outnumber the sand of the sea. On the mother of young warriors I bring the destroyer in broad daylight. Suddenly I bring anguish and terror down on her.
The mother of seven sons grows faint and gasps for breath. It is still day, but already her sun has set, she is dismayed and distracted; and the rest of them I shall consign to the sword, to their enemies, Yahweh declares.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The prophet’s words have become harsh. God truly seems unfair, just as he seemed to Job. Yes, God is angry at a people who do not listen, a people who follow their own habits: “I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways.” God’s anger comes from his love, from his passion, which does not give in when faced with people who do not listen and continue to follow only themselves. He goes as far as to say that he will not listen to their prayers, even “though Moses and Samuel stood” before him. Moses and Samuel are men whose prayers were answered and who changed the history of their people. Moses began the Exodus, the liberation of Israel from the slavery of Egypt. His prayer was indeed effective! Samuel also lived at the dawn of a new era, the beginning of the monarchy in Israel, beginning with Saul and then David. Two prophets, two intercessors. No prayer is acceptable to God if it is not made with a humble heart that is willing to listen and change. There is a type of prayer that is spoken out of habit and that does not transform the heart. This is what Jesus means when he says, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). All those who do not come to terms with God in prayer and learn to do his will are destined to follow their sad destiny, as if God were unable to do anything for those who turn away from him and follow themselves. “Send them out of my sight, and let them go! And when they say to you, Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Those destined for pestilence, to pestilence...” The Word of God does not compel; it does not impose itself. Sometimes people stubbornly choose a sad fate, because they continue in their habits and do not recognize the end that awaits them.
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
