Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 6, 1-5
It happened that one Sabbath he was walking through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands and eating them.
Some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?'
Jesus answered them, 'So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry-
how he went into the house of God and took the loaves of the offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which the priests alone are allowed to eat?'
And he said to them, 'The Son of man is master of the Sabbath.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem and on a Sabbath he is going through a wheat field. The disciples pick heads of grain, rub them between their hands and eat them. According to Rabbinical law, pick up the grain and eating it on a Sabbath was not permissible. And the Pharisees, scrupulous observers of the law, but distant from the life and heart of the people, see what the disciples are doing and accuse them of not respecting the Sabbath. The rabbis, in effect, had listed 39 kinds of work forbidden on the Sabbath, among them reaping, beating and airing out the grain. Obviously, their charge is against the teacher who does not guide them properly according to the law. Jesus avoids entering directly into a casuistic discussion, but responds to their accusation by recalling an episode in which David, fleeing from Saul, who wanted to kill him, took refuge in the temple. The priest allowed the fugitive David to eat the bread of proposition (as they were put in front of God) intended solely for the priests the week of worship. David’s need to eat compelled the High Priest Ahimelech to waive this statutory provision to allow him to sustain himself and survive. Jesus then says, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” With this answer, Jesus places himself on a level higher than that of David. And, as is seen in other parts of the Gospel, Jesus explains that the true interpretation of the law regarding the “day of rest” is to put oneself totally and fully at the service of the Lord. It is not a matter of appearing outwardly to observe rituals. The Lord asks us to rest from work so that we may participate in the Holy Liturgy where we are built up as one family of God and so that we may all, especially the poor, the young and the sick, experience the joy of being brothers and sisters together in a moment of celebration, of rest. Jesus is Lord also of the Sabbath, which does not mean that one is to disregard the prescriptions of the law, but means that the time of salvation consists of liberating brothers and sisters from the loneliness, pain and bondage of an inhuman condition. And it is inhumane to fill our time to the brim with a spirit of commercialism. Christians must ask, in a world where everything seems to fall victim to the law of the market and consumerism, whether there is an urgent task for Christians in our societies to re-propose the value of the Sabbath as a day of praising God, of fellowship and care for the poor.
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
