Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Genesis 27, 1-5.15-29
When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he summoned his elder son Esau. 'Son!' he said, and Esau replied, 'Here I am.'
He then said, 'Look, I am old and do not know when I may die.
Now take your weapons, your quiver and bow; go out into the country and hunt me some game.
Make me the kind of appetising dish I like and bring it to me to eat and I shall give you my special blessing before I die.'
Rebekah was listening while Isaac was talking to his son Esau. So when Esau went into the country to hunt game for his father,
Rebekah took her elder son Esau's best clothes, which she had at home, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them,
covering his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the kids.
She then handed the special dish and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.
He went to his father and said, 'Father!' 'Yes?' he replied. 'Which of my sons are you?'
Jacob said to his father, 'I am Esau your first-born; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the game I have brought and then give me your soul's blessing.'
Isaac said to his son, 'Son, how did you succeed so quickly?' He replied, 'Because Yahweh your God made things go well for me.'
Isaac said to Jacob, 'Come closer, son, so that I can feel you and be sure whether you really are my son Esau or not.'
Jacob went closer to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, 'The voice is Jacob's voice but the arms are the arms of Esau!'
He did not recognise him since his arms were hairy like his brother Esau's, and so he blessed him.
He said, 'Are you really my son Esau?' And he replied, 'I am.'
Isaac said, 'Serve it to me, so that I can eat my son's game and give you my special blessing.' He served it to him and he ate; he offered him wine, and he drank.
His father Isaac said to him, 'Come closer, and kiss me, son.'
He went closer and kissed his father, who sniffed the smell of his clothes. Then he blessed him, saying: Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a fertile field which Yahweh has blessed.
May God give you dew from heaven, and the richness of the earth, abundance of grain and wine!
Let peoples serve you and nations bow low before you! Be master of your brothers; let your mother's other sons bow low before you! Accursed be whoever curses you and blessed be whoever blesses you!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Isaac is now elderly and wants to bless his son Esau, the firstborn. Rebecca does not want this, because she was deeply hurt by his decision to take two foreign women as wives. She is the one who suggests to Jacob the trick of substituting himself for his brother and taking his father’s blessing. Esau hunted the beasts of the field with agility and was successful in everything he did, becoming a conqueror who ruled over his neighbours, while Jacob was a simple man, a person who enjoyed rest. Rebecca does not seem to give any consideration at all to the Divine word when she plans for the elder brother to serve the younger. Esau felt hatred towards Jacob because of the stolen blessing, and the younger brother is forced to flee. He preferred to get the blessing and inheritance through every sort of deceit and trickery rather than through simple submission to God. But God does not refuse to bless Jacob, even if he had seized it through trickery. In the Gospel Jesus will say that the disciples should be as simple as doves but as crafty as serpents. It is not easy to be both. It is necessary even more to belong to God, to listen to His will, and to follow Him to be worthy of the blessings we receive, even if obtained through cunning Jacob and Rebecca are skilled enough to get the blessing even if it angers Jacob’s brother. God uses human weakness to act, giving his blessing to even the least.
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
