Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 5,33-37
'Again, you have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but must fulfil your oaths to the Lord. But I say this to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, since that is God's throne; or by earth, since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or black. All you need say is "Yes" if you mean yes, "No" if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the Evil One.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In the community of the disciples there is no need to resort to oath, let alone made in the name of God, or even in the name of the images that designate Him or other sacred things. Among Jesus' disciples the sincerity of the word and fidelity to the promises must reign. Jesus does not intend to condemn the oath. He thinks there is no need for it. To do so means to devalue the strength and sincerity of the word. Jesus' intent is clear: mutual trust must reign in the fraternity. It is a precious invitation at a time when trust is drying up. Unfortunately, the exorbitant growth of the "I" has occurred at the expense of the fraternal dimension. Individualism pushes one to self-sufficiency, to independence from bonds with others. And it makes one feel omnipotent. Jesus, with some humour, warns that it is not worth swearing "by one's own head", since we do not have the power to make one of our hair white or black. Jesus instead emphasizes the fact that the Lord created us by giving us the word as the way to communion. For this reason, he warns his disciples: "Let your word be: "Yes, yes" or "No, no"; anymore that this comes from the evil one." Our words always have a great weight; they must not therefore be vain or ambiguous. Through them the heart of the human being appears, just as the heart of God appears from the words of revelation. It is the evil one who seeks, through ambiguous words, to corrupt fraternity. Jesus' disciples must learn to know how to say "yes" to the life that comes from the Gospel and at the same time to say "no" to the proposals that divide and disaggregate. All this is the result of a discipline of the heart, which is also a discipline of words, gestures and actions. We are all linked to one another. Believers are invited to say "yes" to the Lord who calls, but also to say "no" to seductions and proposals that seem to be good for us, but are disruptive of the fraternity.
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!