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
Luke 14, 1-6
Now it happened that on a Sabbath day he had gone to share a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely.
Now there in front of him was a man with dropsy,
and Jesus addressed the lawyers and Pharisees with the words, 'Is it against the law to cure someone on the Sabbath, or not?'
But they remained silent, so he took the man and cured him and sent him away.
Then he said to them, 'Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a Sabbath day without any hesitation?'
And to this they could find no answer.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Today’s Gospel begins with the discourse of Jesus to diners at a banquet held at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees where he had been invited. The invitation, to tell the truth, rather than honouring Jesus, was intended to spy on him and catch him in error. Quite different was the attitude of the crowds, however, who flocked to Jesus to listen to him and be freed from the countless slavery that made their lives bitter. Jesus, however, does not reject the invitation even though he is well aware of the intentions of the Pharisee. It was the Sabbath day, and while he is at the table, a man with dropsy enters and instead of begging as often happened in these festive occasions, he heads straight to the young master. As soon as Jesus sees him, he asks those present whether it is lawful or not heal on the Sabbath day. The question is obviously rhetorical; however he does not receive any response from the diners: “But they were silent,” the evangelist notes to emphasize their embarrassment. Without interposing time waiting for the answer, Jesus heals the sick man; “Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away.” It is full of meaning that Jesus took him. We are not facing a healer of wonderful things, rather we are in front of a man who wants to lend a hand, who wants to raise those who are sick and restore dignity to those who are excluded. And there is hurry in healing. We could say that it appears in the same fast sequence of the story: He took him, healed him and sent him away. The poor cannot wait for the disputes and debates about them or about their condition. The love and compassion for them do not tolerate any waiting and should not know any delay. How much distance between this way of acting of Jesus and that of people, even today, in taking care of the weak! And often there is not only the delay, but the absence of the aid. At last, however, Jesus, the compassionate, the merciful came in human history. It is the third miracle, after that of the man with the withered hand and the bent woman, that Jesus performed on the Sabbath. For him, the Sabbath is truly a day of celebration, the day in which the goodness, mercy and love of God for people, especially for the most vulnerable, manifest fully. For us Christians, Sunday should be experienced in this way, the day of resurrection, the day on which creation is freed from evil and renewed in love.
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
