Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Kings 8,22-23.27-30
Then, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood facing the altar of Yahweh and, stretching out his hands towards heaven, said, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, as loyal to the covenant and faithful in love to your servants as long as they walk wholeheartedly in your way. Yet will God really live with human beings on earth? Why, the heavens, the highest of the heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple built by me! Even so, listen favourably to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Yahweh my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant makes to you today: day and night may your eyes watch over this temple, over this place of which you have said, "My name will be there." Listen to the prayer which your servant offers in this place. 'Listen to the entreaty of your servant and of your people Israel; whenever they pray in this place, listen from the place where you reside in heaven; and when you hear, forgive.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This prayer of Solomon is placed at the height of the dedication of the Temple. After blessing the Lord for the election of the House of David as expressed in the prophecy of Nathan (2 Sam 7), Solomon addresses this prayer to Yahweh. It is the same prayer that the Latin liturgy still uses today for the dedication of churches. The king is kneeling before the assembly (v. 54) turned towards the altar with his hands outstretched to the sky. Prayer is not directed towards the void but to God. This is the meaning of Solomon’s position in this prayer. The sky, of course, symbolizes the height of God in comparison with our smallness. Solomon, with eyes and hands lifted upwards, asks the Lord to fulfil the promise made to David. Referring to the construction of the Temple, however, he wonders how it is possible for God to dwell on earth: " Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!" But God had promised his people to accompany them throughout history. This is why Solomon invokes God saying: "Your eyes may be open night and day towards this house, the place of which you said, My name shall be there’ , that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays towards this place." The Temple becomes the place of God’s presence, the place of mercy, the place where the people can call upon the Lord and are sure to be heard, the place of refuge for seeking protection from the Lord, the place where the stranger is to be protected. In his prayer, Solomon lists seven requests to the Lord as if to welcome in the temple the whole life of the people of Israel. Here indeed the Lord has made his dwelling and everyone who comes there will be saved. This is exactly Jesus’ perspective when he comes as the true and definitive Temple where the Lord dwells with fullness. The construction of Solomon’s temple is the figure of this temple that God himself would realize when "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). Nathan had told David: " He will build you a house" (1 Chr 17:10). With Jesus comes the fullness of time and God dwells permanently among His people. And the encounter with Jesus is our salvation.
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
