Memory of blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Read more
Memory of blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
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 27, 1-22
(At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:)
Yahweh said this to me, 'Make yourself thongs and yokes and put them on your neck.
Then send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, through their envoys accredited to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.
Give them the following message for their masters, "Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: You must tell your masters this:
I by my great power and outstretched arm made the earth, the human beings and the animals that are on earth, and I give them to whom I please.
For the present, I have handed all these countries over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; I have even put the wild animals at his service.
(All the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until the time for his own country comes in its turn, when mighty nations and great kings will enslave him.)
Any nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and will not bow its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon, I shall punish that nation with sword, famine and plague, Yahweh declares, until I have destroyed it by his hand.
For your own part, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, dreamers, magicians and sorcerers, who tell you: You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon.
They prophesy lies to you, the result of which will be that you will be banished from your soil, that I shall drive you out, and you will perish.
The nation, however, that is prepared to bend its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I shall leave in peace on its own soil, Yahweh declares, to farm it and stay on it." '
To Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke in exactly the same terms. 'Bend your necks', I told him, 'to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people and you will survive.
(Why so anxious to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague, with which Yahweh has threatened the nation refusing to serve the king of Babylon?)
Do not listen to the words the prophets say to you, "You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon." They prophesy lies to you.
Since I have not sent them, Yahweh declares, they prophesy untruths to you in my name. The result will be that I shall drive you out, you will perish, and so will the prophets who prophesy to you.'
I also spoke to the priests and to all this people as follows, 'Yahweh says this, "Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you as follows: Look, the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh will very shortly be brought back from Babylon. They prophesy lies to you.
(Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and you will survive. Why should this city become a ruin?)
If they are real prophets, if Yahweh's word is really with them, they ought now to be pleading with Yahweh Sabaoth that the remaining vessels in the Temple of Yahweh, in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon too!
For this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says about (the pillars, the Sea, the stands and) the other vessels still remaining in this city,
those not carried off by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon when he took Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (with all the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem).
Yes, this is what Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says about the vessels still remaining in the Temple of Yahweh, in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem:
They will be carried off to Babylon (and stay there until the day I punish them), Yahweh declares. (Then I shall bring them back and restore them to this place.)" '
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This chapter opens with God’s request to the prophet for a unique symbolic act: “Make yourself a yoke of straps and bars, and put them on your neck.” It is a sign of the submission of the people of the region to Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord asks the ambassadors present in Jerusalem to go to their kings after having seen the yoke around the prophet’s neck and report these words, “It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomsoever I please. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him.” But Nebuchadnezzar should know that everything is in God’s hands, and even his kingdom will be subject to others. It is an affirmation of the fact that history is in the hands of God even if people cannot understand it. The prophet Isaiah warns that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (see Is 55:8). At that time, everyone whether in Jerusalem or the capitals of the kingdoms around Judah, thought they could defeat the great Nebuchadnezzar. Only Jeremiah prophesied the opposite, saying that all will “serve the king of Babylon” (v. 9). The symbolic meaning of the yoke is quite evident: with the straps and yoke around his neck, Jeremiah shows how history will unfold. He reveals the future desired by the Lord. By listening to the Lord, he had deeply understood the course of history. This was not a prediction made according to geopolitical reasoning, but a spiritual insight, made according to God. God is the one who made “the earth, with the people and animals” (v. 5). And God is the one who will allow the king of the Chaldeans to dominate the region that extends from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. But the time of the Chaldeans will end, and it will be the Persians, led by Cyrus, who will take their place as the great regional power. History belongs to God, who stands firmly amidst the course of historical events. In truth, all the kingdoms of the earth are “like grass” which “withers” and disappears; only “the word of our God will stand for ever” (Is 40:6-7). And the First Letter of Peter continues, “That word is the good news that was announced to you” (1:25). It is pointless to ask whether the vessels of the Temple will remain in Jerusalem or whether they will be carried off to Babylon. The real concern of those who have faith in their hearts is the communication of the Gospel of life and peace, made with the awareness that the Lord sustains the world with his love and that everything rests in his providential and merciful hands.
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
