Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 12, 14-21
At this the Pharisees went out and began to plot against him, discussing how to destroy him.
Jesus knew this and withdrew from the district. Many followed him and he cured them all
but warned them not to make him known.
This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
Look! My servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul delights, I will send my Spirit upon him, and he will present judgement to the nations;
he will not brawl or cry out, his voice is not heard in the streets,
he will not break the crushed reed, or snuff the faltering wick,
until he has made judgement victorious; in him the nations will put their hope.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus has just healed a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The Pharisees have no doubts anymore and gather to plot and put him to death. They must silence him at all costs. Jesus realizes this and withdraws to a secluded place. His aim is not to be quiet; in fact, he cures all the sick people brought to him. Rather, he does not want to show off. He has not come among men and women to be praised and admired, as the disciples are sometimes tempted to behave, following the example of the Pharisees. Jesus came to serve all, to save us from the slavery of the devil and of sin. So, through a long quotation from Isaiah he presents himself as a servant, a good, humble, meek servant; not as a strong or powerful man, powerful people are today. The true identity of Jesus, and consequently of all Christians, is considered ruinous and unseemly, hence all men and women try to avoid it. , However, the greatest becomes a servant, because this is the only way to find meaning in and a future for human life. Only if we learn to give, to think of ourselves as being for others, to not be afraid of love, can we find our true “I.” Jesus indeed does not save the world from evil through political action or economic ventures. His commitment is much deeper: evil must be eradicated in depth, from its roots embedded in the heart of men and women. This is why he said that “He will not wrangle or cry aloud,” and “He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smouldering wick.” The path to change the world is to relieve, with care and mercy, those who lie on the ground; to cure with promptness the wounds of the suffering, to enliven those who are abandoned, to bend down to anyone to fulfil the justice of God. Only if we are servants can we love others: this is the way of humility. This is not wasting our lives. On the contrary, the path of service makes us useful, better, stronger in facing our weakness. It reveals the beauty which is always hidden in our neighbours. Thus, the way of the servant is the way of God, the way of the lowering of a love so belittling that it can wash the feet of others, and die for the salvation of others. This is the path that Jesus revealed to the disciples then and also now. This path leads to our heart, in order to change it, to cure it, to heal it. The change of the world starts from changing our hearts. From this perspective, the Church and Christians are called to work.
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
