Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Maccabees 1, 54-64
On the fifteenth day of Chislev in the year 145 the king built the appalling abomination on top of the altar of burnt offering; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah
and incense offered at the doors of houses and in the streets.
Any books of the Law that came to light were torn up and burned.
Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practising the Law, the king's decree sentenced him to death.
Month after month they took harsh action against any offenders they discovered in the towns of Israel.
On the twenty-fifth day of each month, sacrifice was offered on the altar erected on top of the altar of burnt offering.
Women who had had their children circumcised were put to death according to the edict
with their babies hung round their necks, and the members of their household and those who had performed the circumcision were executed with them.
Yet there were many in Israel who stood firm and found the courage to refuse unclean food.
They chose death rather than contamination by such fare or profanation of the holy covenant, and they were executed.
It was a truly dreadful retribution that visited Israel.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage begins with a date that remained fixed in the memory of the Jews because of the gravity of what happened. On Antiochus’ birthday, December 25, 167 B.C., an idol, “a desolating sacrilege,” was put on the altar of burnt offering of the Temple, and its worship was inaugurated. In the very heart of the Temple, the covenant that Judah had established with God was betrayed. The covenant would be re-established three years later, on the same day by Judah who would celebrate the dedication of the new altar (4:52). But this first sacrilegious act was unfortunately followed by many others in various cities of Judah. In order to definitively erase even the memory of God, Antiochus commanded the destruction of the books of the Law. Antiochus’ servants set to work and “the books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire.” They understood that the Jews kept those books in high consideration, for the sacred scrolls kept the words of the Covenant that were to be passed down from generation to generation. More than in the walls or altars, the word of God was kept in these scrolls. As they realized it, the King and his servants left no stone unturned in their search of the scrolls: “Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant, or anyone adhered to the law, was condemned to death by decree of the king.” The hunt for the scrolls and for pious Jews went hand-in-hand. However many believers faced the persecutors with courage and remained faithful to the Lord. Surprisingly, that which happened then still happens today. A number of Christians (be they Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant) are killed for having a Bible. Indeed, having a Bible sometimes is a crime. There are even now martyrs of the Word of God. One just needs to think about what happened in Central America in the 1980s when many catechists and religious had to hide their Bibles because having one was a cause for death. Turkey and Central Asia also come to mind where some Christians were killed because they carried a Bible. One might say that the “enemy” knows just how powerful the Holy Scriptures are, be they Jewish or Christian, for in them is the Word of God: to block it, impede it from making an impact, means rendering the community mute and depriving the world of light. Listening to the Holy Scriptures and putting them into practice is the way Christians welcome and communicate to people everywhere the dream that God has for the world. The opposition and persecutions that the author describes as “[A] very great wrath came upon Israel” are truly a dramatic reality that purifies and strengthens the testimonies of the believers.
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
