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
Matthew 23, 13-22
'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to gowho want to.
'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.
'Alas for you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force; but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound."
Fools and blind! For which is of greater value, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?
Again, "If anyone swears by the altar it has no force; but anyone who swears by the offering on the altar, is bound."
You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred?
Therefore, someone who swears by the altar is swearing by that and by everything on it.
And someone who swears by the Temple is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it.
And someone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.
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 is a harsh warning toward the Pharisees of yesterday and of today. Jesus does not accommodate everyoneas a lazy and poor in love mentality would do, leaving everyone alone with him or herself. Jesus directs strong words to the Pharisees to help them understand their mentality and to reveal to them how they are really living. The reprimand to the Pharisees also helps the disciples who often esteem their security. Woe to you is not a threat, but a way of trying to make them understand the consequences of their attitudes. Pay attention to how you live, is what Jesus is saying; Jesus is very different from the teachers of his time, who reprimanded, denounced, condemned and judged with severity and intransigence. They were teachers who did not know how to recognize the tiny speck and who loaded unbearable weights on others while they themselves did not want to lift even a finger. They certify sin with their judgments; but they do not know how to change and nor do they have any interest in helping people change. The Pharisees of every time and generation love the law, not human beings, because human beings confuse our calculations, ask for mercy, not sacrifice, involve the unpredictable bond of love and have a unique destiny. Jesus directs his harsh words to the just, in the hope of helping them finally see and understand. “Woe to you” is the extreme attempt to render aware, those who lack trust and close in on themselves, or who think that evil is outside of themselves. It is an extreme attempt to make them aware of how they live. We should take Jesus’ clear warnings very seriously and above all understand them as an extreme attempt to help us go return to ourselves! And with these words, we should also help to touch the hearts of those who believe they are right because they have clean hands even if, like whitened tombs, those hands hide death within them. The righteous defend themselves and believe they are not the problem, but Jesus is. And yet Jesus never tires of speaking to them to free them from the prison of diffidence, which leads to believing they are fine because they occupy the first places, whereas in fact, they are far from true joy. Jesus warns them like a brother, a father, a true friend and not like a teacher that assigns tasks or examines the pupil! He wants to free us from evil. Only a strong and passionate love knows how to recognize evil and is able to unleash people from it.
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
