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 21,33-43.45-46
'Listen to another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third. Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them thinking, "They will respect my son." But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance." So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?' They answered, 'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him at the proper time.' Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this is the Lord's doing and we marvel at it? 'I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and givena people who will produce its fruit.' When they heard his parables, the chief priests and the scribes realised he was speaking about them, but though they would have liked to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet.
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
There is a growing startling contrast in this Gospel passage: as love grows, so does hostility, and vice versa: as human inhospitality grows, so does God’s love. When the harvest comes, the landowner sends his servants to the tenants to collect the harvest. Their reaction is violent: they beat, kill, and stone the servants. The landowner “again” sends servants, in greater number, but they encounter the same reaction. It is like rereading an effective and tragic summary of the ancient and ever-recurrent story of the violent opposition (even outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition) to the “servants” of God, to men of the “word” (the prophets), the just and honest of every time and place, of every tradition and culture, who, like the “wicked” farmers, want to serve only themselves and their personal advantage. But the Lord and this is the true thread of hope that underlies human history and redeems it does not diminish his love for men and women, but actually increases it. “Finally” the landowner sends his own son, believing that they will respect him. But instead the fury of the tenants explodes and they decide to kill him to take his inheritance. They seize him, throw him “out of the vineyard,” and kill him. These words were perhaps clear only to Jesus when he spoke them. But today we understand them too: they literally describe what happened to Jesus. He was born outside of Bethlehem; he died outside of Jerusalem. Jesus very lucidly and clearly denounces the infidelity and inhospitality of the servants who go so far as killing even the landowner’s son. At the end of the parable, Jesus asks his audience what the landowner will do to his tenants. The answer: he will punish them, take the vineyard away from them, and entrust it to others, who will make it bear fruit. God expects fruit. This is the criterion according to which the vineyard is assigned. The warning travels from those who were listening to Jesus all the way to us. The Gospel tells us not to fall prey to the easy illusion of claiming an inalienable right of ownership over the “vineyard,” which always belongs to God. The new tenants are judged on the fruit they bear, not on whether they belong. Only fruits of justice, piety, mercy, and love allow us to take part in the people of God. It is written in John’s Gospel (15:2): “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.” And again, “You will know them by their fruits.”
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
