Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Malachi 3,1-4.23-24
'Look, I shall send my messenger to clear a way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his Temple; yes, the angel of the covenant, for whom you long, is on his way, says Yahweh Sabaoth. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire, like fullers' alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they can make the offering to Yahweh with uprightness. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be acceptable to Yahweh as in former days, as in the years of old. 'Look, I shall send you the prophet Elijah before the great and awesome Day of Yahweh comes. He will reconcile parents to their children and children to their parents, to forestall my putting the country under the curse of destruction.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Here on the threshold of Christmas, the liturgy has us listen to these words from the prophet Malachi. Malachi lived during the rebuilding of the second temple, in the second half of the 5th century B.C. The fact that the temple was being rebuilt did not keep the people from living a religiously decadent life, and the priests themselves who served at the temple had yielded to corruption. In short, there was a sharp contrast between the exterior restoration of the temple and the widespread corruption of the people. A small remnant wondered what had become of God’s justice. And so the prophet announces that God will send another prophet to prepare for God’s own coming. That day, when the Lord himself comes, will be a "great and dreadful day" (4:5). In fact, he will purify the temple and its priests and pronounce his judgment on the wicked. The prophet who precedes the Lord’s coming is identified with Elijah, a belief that would persist through the centuries and is still present in Jesus’ time. It is striking that Malachi, the last prophet of the Old Testament, introduces the first prophet of the New Testament, John the Baptist, who was called to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah. The evangelist John reports these words of the Baptist: "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord"’, as the prophet Isaiah said" (Jn 1:23). Scripture insists on the need for a prophet who prepares us to encounter the Messiah. We can say that we all need the words of a prophet to open our hearts to welcome the Lord. Faith is not the result of personal effort, nor is it the fruit our ascetic abilities. The Apostle Paul makes it very clear that faith comes from something outside of us, which we can accept at the moment it is freely given to us. Paul writes: "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ" (Rom 10:17). On the eve of Christmas this prophetic word urges us not to close in on ourselves, but to widen our hearts, freeing them from every hindrance of selfishness to make room for the Lord who is coming.
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
