Memorial of the prophet Isaiah Read more
Memorial of the prophet Isaiah
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 6, 52-59
Then the Jews started arguing among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'
Jesus replied to them: In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person.
As the living Father sent me and I draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will also draw life from me.
This is the bread which has come down from heaven; it is not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.
This is what he taught at Capernaum in the synagogue.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This Gospel makes us enter the second part of the discourse of Jesus on the bread of life in the synagogue of Capernaum. When the speech begins to be clear and asks for the involvement of the audience in the mystery of Jesus, the listeners interrupt him and begin to murmur against him; they can not accept that this young man of Nazareth is from heaven, sent by God: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They speak in this way because they do not intend to stoop and ask one they think is their peer, the support for their life; they do not want to humble themselves to confess their hunger, to stretch their hand as the poor and the beggars in need of help do. In short, they do not want to depend on him. They feel satiated with their lives, even if it is not true. They rather remain in the obvious and sad daily routine than being involved in a larger design that asks them to leave their stingy tranquillity. Those who are sated by themselves do not ask; those who are full of their “selves” do not bend. In truth, though satiated and surrounded by goods, food, and words, we are hungry, hungry of happiness, hungry of love. We should look a little more at the poor who ask insistently, and imitate them. In a sated and consumerist society, but always sad and short-sighted, the poor can become the masters for a new life. They shed light on what we are secretly: beggars of love and attention. The poor are hungry, and not for bread alone, but also for love. So we are. Jesus continues to say also to us, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” To have life is not enough to want; it is not enough to understand, we need to eat, to feed on the gospel and on the love of our brothers and sisters. We need to become beggars of a bread that the world does not know how to produce and, anyway, does not know how to give. We are freely given the Eucharistic table; everyone can take part in it. And every time we participate in it, we anticipate heaven on earth. Around the altar, we find what feeds us and quenches our thirst today and for eternity. From this food, we learn what eternal life is, that which is worth living: “Whoever will eat me will live through me.” The Eucharist shapes us because we no longer live only for ourselves, but for the Lord and for our brothers and sisters. Happiness and the eternity of life depend on our ability to bear fruit from the evangelical love we receive in the Eucharist. This is why the ancient Fathers said that Christians “live according to Sunday,” that is, with the logic of the Eucharist, of Jesus who came to serve and to make the love between people grow.
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
