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
Jeremiah 23, 5-8
Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall raise an upright Branch for David; he will reign as king and be wise, doing what is just and upright in the country.
In his days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name he will be called, 'Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice.' "
'So, look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yahweh lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,"
but, "As Yahweh lives who led back and brought home the offspring of the House of Israel from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them, to live on their own soil." '
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The passage from the prophet that we just heard is preceded (v. 1-5) by a stern warning for the shepherds of Israel who have not only lost interest in the sheep of the Lord's flock but have even “scattered” them and “driven them away.” After sternly admonishing the shepherds who by betraying the flock have betrayed him as well, the Lord - through the voice of the prophet - assures the people that he himself will come to gather his flock and bring them to pasture from wherever they have been driven. Jeremiah therefore announces: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch.” As we draw near to Christmas, this announcement finds it fulfilment. These are the days of which Jeremiah speaks. Now is the time when the Lord will give the world a “branch” that will reign over the world with authority and establish justice and righteousness. The Song of God himself has been sent to earth. He appears as a child, truly a “branch” who does not impose himself with outer strength or any attributes of human power. Indeed, he appears as a weak child who is not even born in a house like everyone else. He is born in a cave outside of the city and laid in a manger, as Matthew's gospel reminds us today (1:18-24). The strength of this branch lies totally in the boundless love, which drove him to come down from heaven and which will drive him to walk through the streets and squares of his time to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom. The Lord reigns not in the palaces of those who feel powerful or even in the closed houses of those who think only of themselves. The Lord has chosen to reign from the human heart, from our hearts. This is why Christmas is celebrated every year. We need it, given our forgetfulness and how we remain closed in on ourselves. Every year the liturgy leads us to open the doors of our hearts to allow that Child to be born again in us. A wise old Christian said: “If Christ were born in Bethlehem a thousand times, but never in your heart, you would be lost forever.” The Lord keeps knocking to enter our hearts: his birth renews them, widens them, makes them strong with love, and illuminates them so they can travel to the periphery of our world. A heart renewed by Christmas can give birth to a new earth, a new history, and a more lasting peace.
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
