Remembrance of the terrorist attacks in the United States. Memorial of the victims of terrorism and violence and prayer for peace. Read more
Remembrance of the terrorist attacks in the United States. Memorial of the victims of terrorism and violence and prayer for peace.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Timothy 1, 1-2.12-14
Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by the command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,
to Timothy, true child of mine in the faith. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. By calling me into his service he has judged me trustworthy,
even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith I acted in ignorance;
but the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After his first imprisonment in Rome (61-63), during a missionary trip, Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus as a vicar and leader of the Christian community. Paul had been there for three years from 54 to 57 (Acts 19); then, in his farewell to the elders, when he went back to Jerusalem, he had exhorted them to be vigilant (Acts 20:31). On that occasion, he had foretold that after his departure “Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them” (Acts 20:30). Then, he had asked Timothy to take a firm position against those who proclaimed opinions that were distant from the Gospel. Even if the Letter is addressed to Timothy, it is meant to be shared with the entire community that runs the risk of abandoning its vocation, due to false teachers. Paul recalls his authority as an apostle, and requests everyone to listen to Timothy as if they were listening to himself. Thus he clarifies the sense of authority in the Christian community. Those who guide the community have the task to serve unity and to safeguard the faithfulness to the preaching of the apostles. First of all, they have to build the community through preaching, while opposing those who spread falsity. Paul does not describe falsity; rather he emphasizes its effects. The rise of anger and arguments made the fraternal communion difficult, and this led to a distancing from God. This distance from God proved the falseness of such doctrines. The Gospel, indeed, has been communicated to grow our love for God and for our brothers and sisters. Such love is not founded on our attitudes, nor it is measured on account of our beliefs, rather it is founded on listening to the Word of God. When desire to build this family shaped on the Gospel is lacking, we just speak meaninglessly, the apostle says. He had written to the Corinthians that if we do not have love we are “a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal” (1 Cor 13:1). This always happens when we forget to be disciples and we claim to be “teachers of the law.” Arrogance is a seed of death in the Christian community because it is a core threat to love. Paul maintains that the law is good since it was given to prepare the Gospel: it is “our disciplinarian until Christ came,” as he wrote to the Galatians (Gal 3:24). So, when Jesus came, “the end of the law” (Rom 10:4) came. Certainly, it is useful to the disciples, but only if it is meant as a support to be faithful to the Gospel. In fact, disciples of Jesus, who have been ransomed from sin, are accepted in the community and saved in the fraternal communion. The apostle, aware that the law is for sinners, makes a list of them: lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave-traders, liars, perjurers The law was given to all of them to restrain their destructive instincts to do evil. Truly, we are all aware that we are slaves to our own instincts. Therefore we need not to despise the law, which is a strict discipline aimed at softening our harshness, avoiding oppression, keeping bad and violent thoughts away, and so on. The Gospel of love far from being a new law demands however a discipline of the hearts so that we do not suffocate with our opposition the love poured into us by the Lord. Only the love of the Lord saves us, but we must allow it to work in our lives. The Gospel entrusted to Paul is therefore announcing the liberation from the law through the Gospel of love. Therefore, those who consider themselves righteous and exempt from evil should be careful because they might not be able to accept the freedom of love, which is the only one that can cut off our complicity with evil. On the contrary, those who admit their sin and feel their need of salvation will welcome and understand the love poured out by God.
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
