Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Baruch 4, 5-12.27-29
Take courage, my people, memorial of Israel!
You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies,
since you had angered your Creator by offering sacrifices to demons, and not to God.
You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you. You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you,
for when she saw God's anger falling on you, she said: Listen, you neighbours of Zion: God has sent me great sorrow.
I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.
I had reared them joyfully; in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away.
Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow, deserted by so many; I am bereaved because of the sins of my children, who turned away from the Law of God,
Take courage, my children, call on God: he who brought this on you will remember you.
As by your will you first strayed from God, so now turn back and search for him ten times harder;
for as he has been bringing down those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Israel is once again experiencing the weight of slavery, probably under the kingdom of Syria. The reason for the fall back into slavery is always the same: forgetting the Lord, even though he had freed them from the oppression of Egypt. The prophet says, "but you were handed over to your enemies because you angered God" (v.6). The people of Israel know well that the secret to remaining free in the land that God gave them is contained in the observation of their pact of love with God. And they know well, from direct and repeated experiences, that the humiliation of slavery is always caused by disobedience to the Lord. They should have remembered that happiness does not come from possessing things, not even those received as gifts from God, like the promised land, but from listening to the Word of God and from friendship with brothers and sisters. Therefore the prophet urges the people to take courage, "Take courage," he says at the beginning of the passage. It is not a superficial or optimistic appeal. It comes from the certainty that God is faithful, despite the sins the people have committed. God does not hide, even in moments of difficulty. He waits until we open the door of our heart, even just a crack. And he immediately rushes in. God transforms our sadness into a new time of festivity. It is enough just to raise our eyes a little towards God, to cry out even a single word for help, and God himself will enter our lives. This is why the prophet urges, "Take courage, my children, and cry to God, for you will be remembered by the one who brought this upon you. For just as you were disposed to go astray from God, return with tenfold zeal to seek him. For the one who brought these calamities upon you will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation"(v. 27-29).
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
