In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the Community of Sant'Egidio prays for peace. Read more
In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the Community of Sant’Egidio prays for peace.
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Leviticus 19,1-2.11-18
Yahweh spoke to Moses and said: 'Speak to the whole community of Israelites and say: "Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy. "You will not steal, nor deal deceitfully or fraudulently with your fellow-citizen. You will not swear by my name with intent to deceive and thus profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh. You will not exploit or rob your fellow. You will not keep back the labourer's wage until next morning. You will not curse the dumb or put an obstacle in the way of the blind, but will fear your God. I am Yahweh. "You will not be unjust in administering justice. You will neither be partial to the poor nor overawed by the great, but will administer justice to your fellow-citizen justly. You will not go about slandering your own family, nor will you put your neighbour's life in jeopardy. I am Yahweh. You will not harbour hatred for your brother. You will reprove your fellow-countryman firmly and thus avoid burdening yourself with a sin. You will not exact vengeance on, or bear any sort of grudge against, the members of your race, but will love your neighbour as yourself. I am Yahweh.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This passage of Leviticus is enclosed by two commandments, which crown an alternate version of the ten commandments reported by the sacred author: "You shall be holy, for I am holy," and "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." Here, too, God and neighbour are connected by the Word of God, but in a different way than in the double commandment to love God and neighbour. Holiness is the condition of God himself. That is, God is other than us, separate and transcendent, but not closed off in his own existence. God asks us to share in His life. Hence the invitation, "You shall be holy." He seems to be telling us: "Do not be afraid to take part in my very way of being, in my perfection." The love of neighbour makes holiness real; it allows each one of us to take part in divine life and the condition of God. Between these two invitations are enclosed several commandments that trace out the concrete way to become holy. Some of them are similar to the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20, like, for example, verse 11, which echoes the seventh and eighth commandments: "You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another." The latter commandment is also echoed in part in verses 15 and 16, which deal with legal injustice and slander. The commandments are focused in particular on the neighbour in need: do not oppress one’s neighbour or deprive him of his goods, pay workers, do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, judge justly in court, do not spread slander, and do not take part in the death of a neighbour (this is perhaps a reference to the possibility of condemning someone by false testimony, as happens to Naboth in 1 K 21), do not harbour hatred but reproach your neighbour openly, do not seek revenge or hold a grudge. As we can see, even though the language is marked by the juridical practices of the time, these commandments are still very relevant today and help us reflect on the concrete behaviours that keep us from walking on the path to holiness, loving our neighbour as ourselves. The Lord does not ask for the impossible. However, if we think about how much everyone loves him or herself, we can imagine how different the world would be if we lived with as much love for others. ????
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
