The prayer for the sick is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Read more
The prayer for the sick is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Matthew 25,31-46
'When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome, lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me." Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you? When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?" And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me." Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink, I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me." Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?" Then he will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me." And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This first Monday of Lent opens with the Gospel of the last day, the final judgment. It is a grandiose scene. Jesus, performing his role as king, is seated on his throne with “all his angels.” Before him, as if on an immense stage, are gathered “all the nations.” All: Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers. There is only one division between them: the relationship each one of them had with the Son of Man present in every poor person. Indeed, the judge presents himself as the thirsty one, the hungry, the naked, the foreigner, the sick, and the one who was imprisoned. “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” The dialogue between the King and the speakers from the two groups brings into focus this troubling fact: the glorious judge of the end of time, whom all the speakers recognize as “Lord,” had the face of the homeless man who was begging on the sidewalks of our cities, of the elderly person abandoned in a nursing home, of foreigners who knock on our doors, and so on. Each one of us could add to the list, even if we described only the encounters we have each day. The monotonous repetition of the six situations of poverty (four times in a few verses), with the respective list of actions performed or denied, perhaps indicates how often these situations are repeated in our daily lives. This Gospel comes to tell us that the decisive exchange between humanity and God (decisive because it will be the basis of our final judgment) does not come in the context of heroic or extraordinary feats, but in our daily encounters, in helping those who are in need, in giving food and water to those who are hungry and thirsty, in welcoming and protecting those who are abandoned. Jesus’ identification with the poor he even calls them his brothers and sisters does not depend on their moral or spiritual qualities. Jesus does not just identify with the good and honest poor. It is an objective identity: they represent the Lord because they are poor, small, and weak. Jesus himself became poor and weak.
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
