Memorial of Mary of Clopas who stood near the cross of the Lord with the other women. Prayer for all women in every part of the world who follow the Lord in difficulties and with courage. We remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was killed by the Nazis in the concentration camp of Flossenbürg Read more
Memorial of Mary of Clopas who stood near the cross of the Lord with the other women. Prayer for all women in every part of the world who follow the Lord in difficulties and with courage. We remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was killed by the Nazis in the concentration camp of Flossenbürg
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
John 8, 31-42
To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples;
you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
They answered, 'We are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, "You will be set free?" '
Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave.
Now a slave has no permanent standing in the household, but a son belongs to it for ever.
So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.
I know that you are descended from Abraham; but you want to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
What I speak of is what I have seen at my Father's side, and you too put into action the lessons you have learnt from your father.
They repeated, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them: If you are Abraham's children, do as Abraham did.
As it is, you want to kill me, a man who has told you the truth as I have learnt it from God; that is not what Abraham did.
You are doing your father's work. They replied, 'We were not born illegitimate, the only father we have is God.'
Jesus answered: If God were your father, you would love me, since I have my origin in God and have come from him; I did not come of my own accord, but he sent me.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This Gospel passage should be understood in the context of the tension that arose between the first Christian community and the Jews of the time. The first Christians were put to the test by the hostility of those who claimed to keep the Mosaic law. The evangelist John firmly reminds Jesus’ disciples to continue in his Word; not just to listen to it, but to dwell in it as if it were their home, that is, to make it the most familiar word in their lives and put it into practice. Yes, we can say that the Word received and listened to with faith is the true house in which Christians are called to dwell. In fact, their lives should be enveloped by the Gospel, sustained by the Gospel, and leavened by the Gospel. Christian freedom is nothing other than listening to and following the words of the Gospel. That is the easy yoke of the Gospel, which frees us from the harsh chains of our love for ourselves. Freedom, in fact, does not come from a law or from the strength of our will, much less from belonging to something, even to the descendants of Abraham. Christian freedom is the result of holding fast to Jesus with all of our life. It means being able to live as full participants - along with all other disciples - in Jesus’ mission in the world. Christian freedom does not mean being free from all bonds and able to do whatever we want. That is selfishness and slavery to the world’s fashions and the seduction of evil. Freedom means being freed from the chains of the earth in order to participate in God’s great plan to make all people brothers and sisters and prepare the earth to welcome the fullness of God’s kingdom. After hearing Jesus preach these words, the Jews rose up against him, because they feared that if they followed him he would make them his slaves. In fact, there is a kind of presumption particular to slaves, the presumption of denying they are slaves at all, because sometimes being a slave is comfortable; it shelters us from responsibility and protects us from having to figure out which way to walk; it keeps us from the effort of being part of a we, part of the people Jesus came to earth to gather. The truth will make you free, Jesus says. And the truth is Jesus himself. It is by holding fast to Jesus - forever - that we are freed from all earthly slavery and given a foretaste of true freedom from sin. It is not enough to say we are Abraham’s children to truly be them, Jesus insists. The relationship that truly makes us friends and family of God comes from doing the work of the Father. Jesus replies: If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did! But those Jews were far from following Abraham. They wanted to kill Jesus, something that Abraham would never have even imagined. Abraham, on the contrary, did the greatest work a believer can do: he obeyed the word of the Lord and entrusted his entire life to him, as is written in the Letter to the Hebrews: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going (Heb 11:8).
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
