Thanksgiving to the Lord for the year that has passed.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 John 2, 18-21
Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now many Antichrists have already come; from this we know that it is the final hour.
They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us.
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge.
I have written to you not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you are well aware of it, and because no lie can come from the truth.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
At the end of the year we hear this passage from the first letter of John, which begins with the statement: “ It is the last hour.” The pastoral tradition of the Church has us sing the ancient hymn, the Te Deum, a song of thanksgiving to the Lord for the days that he has given us. We know that the end of the calendar year is just a convention. But it is good to remember that time is not a meaningless dimension of our lives and that our days do not last forever. Days and years go by, and we are asked to live them in God's presence. Indeed history is not an empty shell: it is the place where our salvation happens, the place where the hard battle between good and evil, between the freedom of love and the slavery of evil, is carried on. John emphasizes this battle by invoking the presence of false prophets identified with the antichrist. It is the last hour, the hour of the final battle. Jesus warns the disciples about the “end times,” the last hour, several times in the Gospel. Mark writes: “False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect” (Mk 13:23). This warning even appears in the letters of Paul, Peter and Jude. In saying that “the last hour has come,” John does not mean that history is about to end, but that now is the time of decision, the final choice that everyone has to make about Jesus and his Gospel. This is true for every Christian generation, and indeed for every believer. In fact, we are all put to the test during our lives by the enemies of the Gospel. We must stand firm with Jesus. And we cannot put the decision off until a later time, because we do not know whether there will be one. John notes with sadness that the false prophets are not strangers, they “they went out from us, but they did not belong to us.” They have not been “anointed by the Holy One”, that is, they do not have the Spirit of Jesus, which is poured out in the hearts of the disciples. It is not enough therefore to be physically in the community, we need to live with the spirit that animates it, becoming completely enveloped by it. And this happens when we have “knowledge,” that is, the wisdom of the Gospel. The apostle exhorts his readers to be steadfast in the Gospel: observing it will allow them to remain in communion with the Father. As this year draws to a close and a new year opens, the Church invites us to thank the Lord for the time that has passed and to face the coming year by submitting to the guidance of his Word.
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
