Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Acts 5,12-16
The apostles worked many signs and miracles among the people. One in heart, they all used to meet in the Portico of Solomon. No one else dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. Many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles so that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past. People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Solomon’s portico was the place where Jesus usually stopped to preach. The apostles gathered in that same portico to continue what their teacher did. There they started speaking about Jesus and his teachings and showed his same power and mercy. None of the other disciples, Luke notes, “dared to join them,” perhaps to avoid the reaction of the leaders of the people, who had forbidden their preaching. It was wise prudence, especially because this did not keep the community from growing: “but the people held them in high esteem,” continues the author of Acts, and “yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord.” What can clearly be seen is the pastoral intelligence of carrying out a well-thought-out mission that is not polemical but still effective. The scenes that we read about in the Gospels seem to repeat themselves: many people came to the portico and wherever the apostles passed, many “even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by” (v. 15). This is a very beautiful description of the apostles’ walks through the streets and squares of Jerusalem. From the very beginning we could say that the Christian community is going out, as Pope Francis would say. Indeed, this scene questions our way of life: is it attractive? Does it move people or inspire hope and happiness? The image of people trying to be touched by Peter’s shadow in order to be healed is very striking. The image of Peter and of every disciple who bases his or her life on the Gospel healing even those who are touched by his shadow calls to mind how urgent it is for the Christian communities to be in our cities like the shadow of God’s mercy. Being covered by Peter’s shadow means being surrounded by the love and mercy of the apostle and of God himself. This is what every Christian community is called to do, even today: spread the show of the Lord’s mercy over those who are struck by the heat of the desert with not life or love that characterizes the lives of our cities. Whoever is covered by the shadow of love will find relief and the strength to get up and set off again on the journey of life.
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
