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
Luke 1,39-45
Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Gospel of the "visitation" makes us experience the need to hurry to encounter Jesus. The evangelist notes that after Mary learned from the angel that Elizabeth was pregnant, she ran to her "with haste." The Gospel makes us hurry. It pushes us out of ourselves and our habits, to do what has been announced to us. It urges us not to focus on the same old worries and thoughts. We can easily imagine how concerned Mary was after the angel had changed her life! And yet she left Nazareth to go to her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who was already six-months pregnant and certainly needed help. But we can also imagine that the young Mary wanted to tell her older cousin all about what had happened to her. It is a wise choice to confide in those who love us. And in any event, it was not easy for Mary, who was very young, to face such a long and difficult journey through a "hill country." The Gospel pushes us to run to help those who suffer and those who need support. Love is always grand, even when it is just a simple encounter with the poor. Love is always a choice, the choice to go beyond ourselves. Mary let her heart be touch by her cousin's need for help, and went to her without a moment's hesitation. As soon as Elizabeth saw her approaching, she rejoiced in her innermost being. It is the joy of the weak and the poor when they are visited by the "servants" of the Lord, those who have "believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to [them] by the Lord." From the mouths of the poor comes a blessing for all those who come to them with love. At those moments, a true epiphany of the Holy Spirit takes place. A poor person's smile is the smile of God: their joy is God's joy. And believers will feel the beauty and power of that joy, which comes from the depths of the poor, flow back to them. The embrace between Mary and the elderly Elizabeth is the icon of love between Christians and the poor. It is the encounter that Christians are called to give to the world in order to drive away the paths of injustice and violence and set off on the path of encounter and peace.
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
