Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
James 5,13-20
Any one of you who is in trouble should pray; anyone in good spirits should sing a psalm. Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him. The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up again; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another to be cured; the heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully. Elijah was a human being as frail as ourselves -- he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell for three and a half years; then he prayed again and the sky gave rain and the earth gave crops. My brothers, if one of you strays away from the truth, and another brings him back to it, he may be sure that anyone who can bring back a sinner from his erring ways will be saving his soul from death and covering over many a sin.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In this conclusive part of the Letter, James calls Christians to not hide behind high-sounding religious words (this is the meaning of swearing), but instead to faithfully carry out the Gospel. A Christian is the disciple of a Teacher, thatas Paul writes to Timothy, "who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession" (1 Tim 6:13). And Cyril of Alexandria comments, "May the testimony of our life be stronger than an oath." James reminds us therefore not to feel down in moments of sickness, when we touch our weakness with our hands. Illness must not be the reason for desperation but an invitation to prayerboth personal and communalso the Lord will comfort us with his support, in his mercy, and grant us his healing. If illness divides, distances, and even physically separates us from our brothers and sisters, prayer unites us and grants us to feel Jesus’ presence as a good doctor who wants the healing and salvation of men and women. James’ exhortation is very opportune also in our times: it awakens in us and in the Christian community the urgency of praying for healing, which is often forgotten in a distracted and disbelieving society. Certainly, prayer should be done with faith, with a contrite heart ("confess your sins ") and with insistence, as did Elijah, whose prayer was answered by the Lord. James reminds believers of the strength of prayer, knowing well that nothing is impossible with God. The comment of Soloviev, which recalls James’ letter is significant: "Faith without works is dead; prayer is the first work of faith." The ending of the letter, which ties back to the beginning, recalls the value of leading back to the Lord those who are lost. Brotherly love renders the disciples responsible for each other: and on this path the disciples find their 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
