Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Mark 10, 1-12
After leaving there, he came into the territory of Judaea and Transjordan. And again crowds gathered round him, and again he taught them, as his custom was.
Some Pharisees approached him and asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?' They were putting him to the test.
He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?'
They replied, 'Moses allowed us to draw up a writ of dismissal in cases of divorce.'
Then Jesus said to them, 'It was because you were so hard hearted that he wrote this commandment for you.
But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female.
This is why a man leaves his father and mother,
and the two become one flesh. They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh.
So then, what God has united, human beings must not divide.'
Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this,
and he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.
And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Here a new section of the Gospel of Mark starts. The journey to Jerusalem continued and the group reached Judea, a region east of the river Jordan. A huge crowd was always around Jesus, and he spoke on some important issues for the life of the Christian community. The first concerned marriage and the command for the spouses to maintain life-long fidelity. Jesus affirmed the original indissolubility of marriage by referring to the original design of God. The Law of Moses had allowed man to divorce only if the man “found in her something shameful.” According to Jesus, this rule is only a concession to human beings? insensitivity. The original intention of the Lord is a faithful love forever. And that is why in the Christian rite of marriage the priest says the words that Jesus said in the Gospel, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” In fact, the pledge of fidelity and the desire for a stable union able to last “all the days of my life” -- as the bride and groom proclaim on the day of the wedding -- are feelings we find in the heart of every man and every woman who starts building a family. Jesus brought out and enhanced the desire of each of us to learn to be faithful and never stand alone, “in joy and in pain.” It is not simply the re-statement of an abstract principle, it is rather an understanding of the urgency of love, of faithfulness, of mutual understanding, and also of forgiveness and of mutual accompanying in the life of marriage. These words, beyond cases, emphasize marriage as a life-long bond, and suggest the original vocation to communion the Lord inscribed in all people?s hearts. They help us to understand that love between a man and a woman cannot be only the result of a feeling; it rather should be based on a project of love, which means fidelity and construction. We often hear that a stable marriage and a family cannot adapt to the times in which we are living. To the younger ones, a life-long, definitive, and exclusive love seems to be hard. In the Gospel Jesus reminds us that fidelity is the deep desire God inscribed in all hearts, calling us to learn and love, to make an effort to ensure the stability and strength of the family union, as an image of the Lord?s love for all humanity and for the Church.
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
