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
Acts 5,17-26
Then the high priest intervened with all his supporters from the party of the Sadducees. Filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and had them put in the public gaol. But at night the angel of the Lord opened the prison gates and said as he led them out, 'Go and take up position in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new Life.' They did as they were told; they went into the Temple at dawn and began to preach. When the high priest arrived, he and his supporters convened the Sanhedrin -- this was the full Senate of Israel -- and sent to the gaol for them to be brought. But when the officials arrived at the prison they found they were not inside, so they went back and reported, 'We found the gaol securely locked and the warders on duty at the gates, but when we unlocked the door we found no one inside.' When the captain of the Temple and the chief priests heard this news they wondered what could be happening. Then a man arrived with fresh news. 'Look!' he said, 'the men you imprisoned are in the Temple. They are standing there preaching to the people.' The captain went with his men and fetched them -- though not by force, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This passage from Acts reports two scenes, the first regarding the arrest and miraculous liberation of the apostles and the second their subsequent arrest. The text begins by noting that the high priest and the Sadducees ordered the arrest of the apostles because of their jealously at the success they found among the people. The author speaks of "jealousy" of the leaders of Israel. We all know the damage caused by jealousy, which is the most diabolical of bad feelings. In the book of Wisdom it says that death entered the world through the jealousy of the devil. And through jealousy the apostles were put into prison. The preaching of the Word of God continued to work miracles, and the Christian community continued to grow in esteem among the people. But not in the eyes of the priests and Sadducees, in particular. We know that the Christian community always suffers the same fate as Jesus. But the Lord does not abandon his disciples in prison. And in the night an angel miraculously comes down to free them from prison. And he orders them to go back to the temple to preach to the people. We could say that it was no longer possible to keep the Word of God in chains. The different Herods who each in turn will try to silence the Gospel will be defeated. Even in the last century we witnessed the tragedies caused by totalitarian regimes that had decided to silence the Gospel, imprisoning and killing its witnesses. And in our days, at the beginning of this new millennium, the persecution of Christians seems to be growing stronger. There is a mystery in the persecution of Christians. Why do people attack them? What harm do they do? In truth, Christians who are meek and humble and who have no special claims to make represent a radical objection to the violence of evil. Sooner or later, the meekness of the Gospel will break every chain of violence. Consequently, evil cannot stand this meekness and tries in every way to uproot it from the face of the earth. Christian meekness is not aimed at the elimination of those who persecute it. Rather, a prayer for enemies and those who persecute them rises from the mouths of believers even when they are in chains. Unfortunately, the next story shows the perverse persistence of evil, which, through its foolish servants, continues to imprison the apostles.
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
