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Liturgy of the Sunday
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Liturgy of the Sunday

5 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Don Andrea Santoro, a Roman priest killed in Trebizond, Turkey.
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Libretto DEL GIORNO
Liturgy of the Sunday
Sunday, February 5

Homily

Immediately after the Gospel of the Beatitudes, Jesus turns to his disciples and tells them that they are the salt of the earth and light of the world. We are still at the beginning of Jesus’ evangelical ministry, and the disciples surely cannot boast of being examples of “men of the Beatitudes.” It is no wonder that to the disciples and to us these words seem excessive. Jesus, however, insists, “If salt has lost its flavour, how can its saltiness be restored?” This was a question about responsibility or an audacious statement by Jesus that there is no one else but you all to proclaim the Gospel. Or, put another way, if you yield less and your activities become dull and have no flavour, I have no other way of announcing the Gospel. This is what happens when you put your light under a bushel basket (at that time, once it was turned over, it served as a shelf); even in this case there is no remedy; one remains in the dark.
Those words are as true now as they were then. The duty of being salt of the earth and the light of the world must never be abandoned. Every one of us well knows that in light of these words, we are poor people. Truly we are small in respect to the work that needs to be done as expressed in the Beatitudes that we heard last week. How can we be salt and light? Aren’t we all insufficient? In a moment of self-consciousness, when the apostle Peter recognized the Lord, he said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” This sentence that we can all speak, indeed, that we should say, very rarely falls from our lips. Each one of us has a good opinion of ourselves. At times, we focus on our poverty, yet not out of a sense of true humility but with a self-defeatist attitude, which, therefore cannot flavour or illuminate the world even if we could do it. It is as if by presuming our own lack of dignity, we become passive, lazy and finally resigned little by little. Yet, Matthew’s Gospel urges us that we, poor men and women, are salt and light, not of ourselves but from sharing in the true salt and light: Jesus of Nazareth. John’s Gospel says, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” The light does not come from personal endowments or from so-called being good-natured or from our own virtues. In his letter to the Christians of Corinth, the Apostle Paul recalls that he comes not with lofty words: “I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” And yet, despite his weakness, his fear and trepidation, he defends the sincerity of his ministry: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The apostle’s weakness does not dim the light of what he proclaims nor does it diminish the strength of his preaching and witness. On the contrary, it is a springboard and Paul explains why: “So that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”
There is a profound sense of liberation in these words. In contrast to what happens among humanity, we Christians are not condemned to hide the weakness and misery in which we are enmeshed. These do not undermine the power of God, cancel it or call it into question; if anything, they exalt it if we welcome him. Let us be careful not to confuse weakness with laziness, and poverty with greed. And yet, we are aware of that “we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Cor 4:7). The Lord is the first who is not ashamed of our weakness; his light is not dimmed by our shadows. In the eyes of the Gospel, humanity is not scorned; the Lord carries no antipathy toward us for he is rightly called the friend of the people. Paul adds, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Our boast is never in ourselves. The grace of God and his love shine in our weakness; we can never take possession of it, as it always goes beyond us and never abandons us.
Moreover, the Gospel says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” This is the invitation that the Lord offers so that we may become workers of the Gospel. The prophet Isaiah tells us what this means: “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless into your house, when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” This is charity, the light of the Lord, a broad charity that widens the walls of our hearts. It is focused especially on the poor, the weak and at the same time, does not forget those who are close to us. The prophet adds that only “then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”

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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!

WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY: THE CALENDAR