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
Acts 26,1-32
Then Agrippa said to Paul, 'You have leave to speak on your own behalf.' And Paul held up his hand and began his defence: 'I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, in that it is before you I am to answer today all the charges made against me by the Jews, the more so because you are an expert in matters of custom and controversy among the Jews. So I beg you to listen to me patiently. 'My manner of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem, is common knowledge among the Jews. They have known me for a long time and could testify, if they would, that I followed the strictest party in our religion and lived as a Pharisee. And now it is for my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors that I am on trial, the promise that our twelve tribes, constant in worship night and day, hope to attain. For that hope, Your Majesty, I am actually put on trial by Jews! Why does it seem incredible to you that God should raise the dead? 'As for me, I once thought it was my duty to use every means to oppose the name of Jesus the Nazarene. This I did in Jerusalem; I myself threw many of God's holy people into prison, acting on authority from the chief priests, and when they were being sentenced to death I cast my vote against them. I often went round the synagogues inflicting penalties, trying in this way to force them to renounce their faith; my fury against them was so extreme that I even pursued them into foreign cities. 'On such an expedition I was going to Damascus, armed with full powers and a commission from the chief priests, and in the middle of the day as I was on my way, Your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven shining more brilliantly than the sun round me and my fellow-travellers. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you, kicking against the goad. Then I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And the Lord answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason: to appoint you as my servant and as witness of this vision in which you have seen me, and of others in which I shall appear to you. I shall rescue you from the people and from the nations to whom I send you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God, and receive, through faith in me, forgiveness of their sins and a share in the inheritance of the sanctified." 'After that, King Agrippa, I could not disobey the heavenly vision. On the contrary I started preaching, first to the people of Damascus, then to those of Jerusalem and all Judaean territory, and also to the gentiles, urging them to repent and turn to God, proving their change of heart by their deeds. This was why the Jews laid hands on me in the Temple and tried to do away with me. But I was blessed with God's help, and so I have stood firm to this day, testifying to great and small alike, saying nothing more than what the prophets and Moses himself said would happen: that the Christ was to suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he was to proclaim a light for our people and for the gentiles.' He had reached this point in his defence when Festus shouted out, 'Paul, you are out of your mind; all that learning of yours is driving you mad.' But Paul answered, 'Festus, your Excellency, I am not mad: I am speaking words of sober truth and good sense. The king understands these matters, and to him I now speak fearlessly. I am confident that nothing of all this comes as a surprise to him; after all, these things were not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe in the prophets? I know you do.' At this Agrippa said to Paul, 'A little more, and your arguments would make a Christian of me.' Paul replied, 'Little or much, I wish before God that not only you but all who are listening to me today would come to be as I am -- except for these chains.' At this the king rose to his feet, with the governor and Bernice and those who sat there with them. When they had retired they talked together and agreed, 'This man is doing nothing that deserves death or imprisonment.' And Agrippa remarked to Festus, 'The man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Paul, still in Caesarea, finds himself before King Agrippa and here for the last time he delivers his final speech in his defence. After the usual “captatio benevolentiae” (catching the benevolence’ Note of the translator) he describes his life as an observant Jew, so strict that he actually persecuted Christians for their faith in the risen Jesus. But it was just on his way to imprison Christians in Damascus that he had to change his mind: after his fall from the horse, he had a vision of Jesus. Paul says that at that point not only did he stop persecuting Christians, but he also became the proponent of the same Gospel he had been fighting against. For the Gospel, he has been brought to trial after repeated threats of death. As Paul is giving his speech, the good Festus, the Roman procurator, loses his patience and interrupts him, “You are out of your mind, Paul!” Again we see the accusation of madness or, in any event, of exaggeration, addressed to the apostles on the day of Pentecost, “These people are drunk.” Even Jesus was accused of being a fool. It is true that the Gospel seems foolish. But, is not the status quo that incites wars, violence, destruction and injustice more foolish? For the common mentality, the Gospel of peace, mercy, forgiveness and love is madness. Paul, in responding politely to King Agrippa, simply states that these are crucial questions for one’s life, questions that the King, himself a Jew, can understand. The king realizes that if he agrees with Paul he would be recognizing Christianity as the fulfilment of the Scriptures, a choice he cannot make. He gets out of the situation with a joke, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?” At this point, the debate ends even because Paul has to go to Rome to be judged. All who listened are convinced that a dreamer like Paul could never possibly merit death or chains. He is innocent but remains in chains.
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
