Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jeremiah 7,23-28
My one command to them was this: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. In everything, follow the way that I mark out for you, and you shall prosper. But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed their own devices, their own stubborn and wicked inclinations, and got worse rather than better. From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, persistently sending them day after day. But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have deliberately resisted, behaving worse than their ancestors. So you will tell them all this, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer you." Then you are to say to them, "This is the nation that will neither listen to the voice of Yahweh its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Yesterday we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy the invitation made by Moses to the people of Israel to listen to the Lord. It is from listening, in fact, that not only wisdom but salvation itself come for Israel. With today’s passage, the prophet repeats Moses’ exhortation almost word for word: "Obey my voice!" (v. 23). Unfortunately, as often happened to the people of Israel and as often happens to us, it is easy not to listen. It happens when we put our trust in our own beliefs, habits, and religious traditions; when we seek our own advantage, our own peace and quiet, and our own well being. In these moments we do not rely on the Lord. Nonetheless, the Lord does not cease to send his prophets to shake the Israelites’ deafness of ear and hardness of heart: "I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention. But they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did"(v. 25-26). But the Lord never tires, and continues to send his messengers. And now it is Jeremiah’s turn. The Lord knows that they will listen to him with difficulty: "So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you" (v.27). Our weakness and our stubbornness are well known to God. But God does not resign himself and continues to have the desire to change our hearts, to open our minds, and to make us share in his thoughts and his work. And to change us he even uses harshness. So he asks Jeremiah to speak to the people clearly, not hiding anything, "This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips" (v. 28). The Lord’s insistence in sending prophets is similar to the parable of the sower who never ceases to go out and sow on every sort of soil, in the hope that the seed not only take root but bear abundant fruit. This passage concerns us deeply. Let us be careful to listen to the Lord’s voice, to keep it in our hearts, and to put it into practice. This is the way the Lord has chosen to establish his kingdom.
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
