Memorial of Lazarus of Bethany. Prayer for all those who are gravely ill and for the dying. Memorial of those who are suffering from AIDS. Read more
Memorial of Lazarus of Bethany. Prayer for all those who are gravely ill and for the dying. Memorial of those who are suffering from AIDS.
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
Genesis 49,2.8-10
Gather round, sons of Jacob, and listen; listen to Israel your father. Judah, your brothers will praise you: you grip your enemies by the neck, your father's sons will do you homage. Judah is a lion's whelp; You stand over your prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, a mighty lion: who dare rouse him? The sceptre shall not pass from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute be brought him and the peoples render him obedience.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
At this time the Word of God is given to us day after day to enlighten our minds so that we understand more deeply the mystery of Christmas. These first verses of chapter 49 of the Book of Genesis, describe the scene of Jacob’s dying surrounded by his children. The patriarch, lying on his death bed, turns to his children with his last words as his father Isaac had earlier done. It is a solemn and holy scene. Jacob’s words have the prophetic power of those who, perfecting themselves by long listening to the Word of God, are now its gushing spring. Jacob asks his twelve sons, progenitors of the tribes of the whole people of God, first of all to listen: "Listen to Israel, your father." Jacob, who first had listened, asks his sons to continue listening. Listening, we might say, is the red thread that binds the generations of believers both from the Old and the New Testament. Believers transmit to each other the wisdom that comes from the Lord and that He, in His mercy, does not fail to give to his children through the Spirit. The Word of God, received with faith, is at the foundation of the history of believers. The words contained in this passage are those that Jacob said to Judah. He is exalted among his brothers for his regal power, similar to that of the lion, and for the "sceptre" and the "ruler’s staff" that he will hold over the tribes of Israel and over all his enemies. The sacred author almost certainly alludes to the Davidic monarchy, in which the Lord placed the sceptre of His Anointed, the Messiah who will protect his people. And no one will be able to take the kingdom from him. By offering this passage while Christmas is approaching, the liturgy binds it to the full realization, the fulfilment of these words in the mystery of Christmas that we are going to celebrate. The "king" who leads his people and will rule over all nations is about to be born. The Book of Revelation links the image of the lion to Jesus in these words, "[the lion of the tribe of Judah] has conquered" (Rev 5:5). Gathered by the Word of God, we open our hearts to listen because what is written is going to become true for our salvation and that of the peoples. The note of universality that at the beginning covered the whole of Israel, with the Twelve Apostles has expanded to the entire world and extends love to the ends of the earth.
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
