Memorial of Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595), "apostle of Rome." Read more
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595), "apostle of Rome."
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Peter 2,2-5.9-12
Like new-born babies all your longing should be for milk -- the unadulterated spiritual milk -- which will help you to grow up to salvation, at any rate if you have tasted that the Lord is good . He is the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you, too, may be living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people to be a personal possession to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were a non-people and now you are the People of God; once you were outside his pity; now you have received pity. I urge you, my dear friends, as strangers and nomads, to keep yourselves free from the disordered natural inclinations that attack the soul. Always behave honourably among gentiles so that they can see for themselves what moral lives you lead, and when the day of reckoning comes, give thanks to God for the things which now make them denounce you as criminals.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Comparing the new people to a family, the apostle calls the disciples to live like just born children, that is, like children who abandon themselves faithfully into the hands of the mother, the Church. The indispensable discipleship to the Gospel renders Christians children of the Church, always. We could say, therefore, that it renders us always children, that is always needful of this good and caring motherthe Church. Christians must nourish themselves continuously from her motherly milk. Therefore, with a sixth exhortation, the apostle invites believers to "get close" to Christ’s "living rock," to "be built into a spiritual house." The image of the rock recalls both the strength of the love and the pulse of life, as it happened to the rock in the desert from which the water of life flowed. This rock, thrown away by the builders of a violent and evil world, was chosen by God and made the cornerstone of a new spiritual edifice, that is, the community of believers. The stones that make up this edifice are the believers. They must be like the cornerstone, that is, to live in the same love and resist with the same strength. Maybe even they will be thrown away by people, as it happened to the cornerstone; but exactly for this reason they are determining for the building up of a new spiritual edifice. The otherness from the world is the proof of evangelical truth of the Christian community. For this reason, only God, the one and true architect, can build this Temple. But each believer must feel the responsibility of being a living rock, that is: clear in the faith, generous in love and strong in hope. Perhaps Peter, while he writes this letter, remembered in particular the words Jesus told him at Caesarea Philippi: "You are Peter on this rock I build my church" (Mt 16:18). But he widens the meaning to the disciples: all Christians are living rocks of the new spiritual edifice based on the foundation, which is Jesus himself. Peter can say therefore that Christians are the "chosen race, the royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people chosen by God." United around Jesus, they become one single body, that with one heart and one soul, turns to the Lord in praise, in thanksgiving and in prayer for the salvation of the world. The Christian community, therefore, is not built up for itself but to become the new temple among men and women to "proclaim" to all the love of the Lord and to direct all toward 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
