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
Mark 7, 24-30
He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there; but he could not pass unrecognised.
At once a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and came and fell at his feet.
Now this woman was a gentile, by birth a Syro-Phoenician, and she begged him to drive the devil out of her daughter.
And he said to her, 'The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to little dogs.'
But she spoke up, 'Ah yes, sir,' she replied, 'but little dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.'
And he said to her, 'For saying this you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.'
So she went off home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Ending the controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees on ablutions and legal purity, Mark’s text offers us the story of the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus returns again in a pagan land and stays there for some time, accomplishing a real mission of evangelization. It seems that in Chapter 7 and 8, the evangelist Mark underlines the determination of Jesus to go beyond the boundaries of his people. Breaking the boundaries of the ordinary people of Israel, Jesus wants to say that the Gospel is not reserved only to a few people or only to certain people. There is no one in the world that is alien to the Gospel; no one who cannot be touched by the Lord’s mercy. The example of the Syrophoenician woman, as recounted by the evangelist, seems to “force” Jesus to push the boundaries of his mission. One could say that the Gospel even pushes Jesus to go further, not to stop on the usual boundaries, not even those of his own culture or his own religion. Soon after having received the baptism by John, Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Mt 4:1), as if to emphasize Jesus’ obedience to the Father. In this case it is the prayer of this woman to bend Jesus’ heart. She insistently asks for healing for her sick daughter. It is an example for all of us believers: this is the way to pray. Moreover many times Jesus himself insisted on perseverance in prayer, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened for you” (Lk 11:9-10). The insistence of this poor woman helps us to understand the mercy and goodness of God. The Lord cannot resist the sincere prayer of his children, even those that are considered to be far from the faith of his people. That woman has persevered in prayer and Jesus has heard her beyond her demands. He has not only given the crumbs, but the fullness of life for her daughter. Truly the Lord’s heart is large and rich in mercy. We are asked only to turn to Him with confidence. At the end of the parable about the efficacy of prayer, Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit* to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13).
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
