Memorial of the deportation of the Jews of Rome during the Second World War Read more
Memorial of the deportation of the Jews of Rome during the Second World War
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 11, 47-54
'Alas for you because you build tombs for the prophets, the people your ancestors killed!
In this way you both witness to what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.
'And that is why the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute,
so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet's blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the Temple." Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.
'Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves and have prevented others from going in who wanted to.'
When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable questions,
lying in wait to catch him out in something he might say.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus will continue to oppose the Pharisees and Scribes with the two last invectives. The Pharisees and Scribes, not contented enough with imposing obligations onto others that they themselves do not observe, maintain the same attitude of those Jews who did not listen to the prophets and killed them. In so doing, they impede not only themselves but others from entering the Kingdom. They possess the keys to religious knowledge but they are unable to open the way to God for themselves and even worse, they close the door to the humble and weak who seek salvation. This is the gravest charge against them. In the entire Bible story God is always the defender of the poor and of the weak; who offends them, offends God. This is found in the Old Testament tradition and was brought to fulfilment in Jesus preaching, as he identified himself with the poor and the weak. This is why we too, and especially those who carry responsibility within the Christian community, need to listen with great attention to these harsh words Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and Scribes. The Gospel word asks everyone to be responsible ones for the others, especially the poor. Every believer’s duty is to love others with responsibility and attention. Moreover, it is a right, first and foremost for the poor, right to be loved and protected. We are linked to the generation in which we live and no one can say that they are foreign to what happens in their given life time. Indeed, we are in a sense “co-responsible”-- naturally, each person according to their capabilityfor our neighbours. In the Christian community, brothers and sisters have a reciprocal responsibility for each other. One could say that in the community, everyone is both with the flock and with the shepherds. In that way, we go beyond that kind of clerical climate that puts the responsibility only on clergy. No, God’s family is a family where everyone is entrusted to one another. Cain’s answer is certainly not in a family spirit: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gn 4:9). Truly every believer should broaden his or her family spirit to all peoples. Indeed, every believer has a responsibility to build up and nourish fraternity between people. This responsibility grows with the increase of evil in the world. All of us need to be attentive to the “prophets”, that is, those who are sent by God who are sent from time to time to awaken our dormant conscience. We will be brought to account on whether we followed the words of the prophets both in Scripture and of those God continues to send us in the world. We could risk an even greater guilt than the Scribes and Pharisees gave: how many prophets and martyrs in our century have witnessed the primacy of God till death? Aren’t there also in our times? We have received many witnesses, we have been given many gifts and have had many loving and good brothers and sisters with us. They have opened to us the way of the Gospel of love. The Lord is asking us not to be stuck in concentration on ourselves and to let our hearts be guided on the way of repentance of heart.
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
