Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
2 Corinthians 5, 14-21
For the love of Christ overwhelms us when we consider that if one man died for all, then all have died;
his purpose in dying for all humanity was that those who live should live not any more for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life.
From now onwards, then, we will not consider anyone by human standards: even if we were once familiar with Christ according to human standards, we do not know him in that way any longer.
So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see.
It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's faults against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul returns to explaining the meaning of his apostolic ministry, since the Corinthians know how to respond to those who are acting full of themselves, proud of their religious experiences and of their wisdom. Paul, however, caught up into “madness” by the love of Christ (if we are beside ourselves, it is for God’), affirms that believers live no longer for themselves but for Jesus who died and rose for all. This is the heart of the Gospel. And whoever receives it becomes a new creature because they find the new meaning of existence: precisely, no longer to live for themselves, which is the “gospel” of the world, that which all those present shouted out to Jesus while he was on the cross: “Save yourself.” The Gospel of Christ instead is the love which does not know any limits, the love which comes to forgive those who offend us and which impels us to love also our enemies. Unfortunately it is truly difficult to understand that this is the heart of Christian life, and is the true novelty that the world needs. Too often, however, we allow ourselves to be taken by the slavery of love only for ourselves. We need to continue to turn our eyes and our hearts to the Lord and to learn from him the meaning of life. If we welcome him in our hearts, if we nourish ourselves on his words and on his body, if we live in communion with our brothers and sisters, also we will be renewed. Paul writes: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (v. 17) If we remain united to Jesus and to his Church, we are reconciled with God. The apostle thus becomes minister of reconciliation, ambassador of Christ, in order for all to be renewed. No one can reconcile themselves by their own self, no one can self-pardon themselves. There is need of the apostle who continues to insist: “Be reconciled to God.” The Lord, Paul seems to say, loves us to such an extent as neither to blame us for our sins, nor condemn us for them. Jesus, in fact, just to save us from condemnation, he himself was made sin for us. And he entrusted to his disciples the ministry of reconciliation. In a world lacerated by divisions, devoured by evil, and mean in forgiving there is a need that believers may manifest mercy, piety, compassion. Among the many moments in which to manifest the love and forgiveness there is that wholly particular moment represented by the sacrament of confession: it is the high moment in which God bends down over us with an infinite mercy. It is the joy of embrace with the Lord whom the minister in this moment represents.
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
