Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 16, 23b-28
Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete.
I have been telling you these things in veiled language. The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language but tell you about the Father in plain words.
When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you,
because the Father himself loves you for loving me, and believing that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In the past days, the Gospel of John revealed to us the circle of love that unites the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that also surrounds the disciples. The fruit of this spreading love is joy. The disciples can rejoice because they are no longer alone and abandoned to the fate of sin and death. Communion with Jesus determines a new state of the disciples: children of God. Believers, therefore, can ask anything of the Father, and He will grant it. This certainty is the reason for “complete” joy. Jesus said to them, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name,” that is, they did not join Jesus in the communion of his Spirit. Their faith was still immature, they thought of Jesus in a human way, within the categories of the world. To understand Jesus and to be close to him, we need to accept his very Spirit in our hearts. The disciples will receive it on the day of Pentecost and it will stay with them all of their days. We too receive the Spirit in sacramental signs and whenever the Word is proclaimed. As Jesus’ disciples then, the eyes of our heart open and we understand the great mystery of love that surrounds us. Jesus had just said, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:25- 26). Communion with Jesus is not the result of abstract and exterior knowledge; it is above all a communion of love and of trusting abandonment to him. Overwhelmed by this love, the Apostle Paul said, “For to me, living is Christ” (Phil 1:21). Communion with Jesus allows us to understand the following words: “On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” Jesus says to his disciples and to us that he came on earth to be one with his disciples and to bring them into the bosom of the Father. He is going to pass from this world to the Father. And yet, he returns to the Father no longer alone, as he had descended, but with the disciples of yesterday, today and tomorrow, whom he acquired with his own blood. We thank the Lord for his love that surrounds us and saves us.
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
