Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Haggai 1, 1-8
In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest as follows,
'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of Yahweh." '
(And the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows,)
'Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses, when this House lies in ruins?
So now, Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Think carefully about your behaviour.
You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but feel no warmth. The wage-earner gets his wages only to put them in a bag with a hole in it."
Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Think carefully about your behaviour.
Go up into the hills, fetch timber and rebuild the House; and I shall take pleasure in it and manifest my glory there -- Yahweh says.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Haggai is the Israeli prophet who most insisted on the rebuilding of the Temple. His prophecy took place in 520 BC, when the Temple of Jerusalem was a heap of rubble. Despite their return from exile, the Jews had not rebuilt the Temple yet. Haggai preached for six months almost exclusively on the need to rebuild the Temple: "Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord" This insistence sounds even excessive. It marks a difference with other prophets, who called for the conversion of the heart and works of righteousness, rather than devotion to the Temple. Furthermore, most people then lived in extreme poverty: the drought had ruined crops (1:10-11), people were hungry (1:6), and the desert had encroached upon the farmlands. Moreover, many years before, the hostility of the Samaritans had discouraged them from rebuilding the Temple (Ezra 4:4-5). After all, why should they care about the presence of God, when their condition was marked by misfortune and by the domination of a foreign power The prophet Haggai invited the people of Israel to consider their sad condition: "Consider how you have fared" (1:5.7). Their distance from God was indeed the real cause of their tragedy. It was so for the people of the Lord back then, and for us today. How often do we forget the Lord and focus only on ourselves, accomplices to a sad life for ourselves and for others We might recall Jesus’ words to his followers: "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Mt 6:33). The search for God and his righteousness is the foundation of a worthy life. Haggai meant the rebuilding of the Temple as a way to focus on the Lord again, both in his personal life and in the life of the people. Actually, the words of the prophets came true: Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the people cleared the site of the Temple from its rubble in three weeks, and the foundation of the new building was set on September 21, according to the author of Haggai (1:12-15), (as it is told in the first chapters of Ezra). This invites us to clear from our hearts those worries that burden them, and to make them the temples of 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
