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
Luke 6, 27-38
'But I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.
To anyone who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek as well; to anyone who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from someone who takes it.
Treat others as you would like people to treat you.
If you love those who love you, what credit can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit can you expect? For even sinners do that much.
And if you lend to those from whom you hope to get money back, what credit can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.
Instead, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
'Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The evangelist Luke, immediately after the Beatitudes, takes on the essential ideas already proposed by Matthew in the parallel passage in which Jesus proclaims the newness of the kingdom he came to inaugurate. Without repeating the "antithesis" used by Matthew, Luke records the words of Jesus in a very straightforward version. Jesus says: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." These words are clear and direct, wholly foreign to the culture of this world, and for this, even mocked. How many times do we also say: "These words are beautiful but not realistic." Yet, only in these words can the world find salvation, reasons to stop wars and, above all, drive to build a peace and coexistence that are durable between people and between peoples. For Jesus, there are no more enemies to hate and fight. For him - and then for each disciple - there are only brothers and sisters to love, if anything, to correct, and in any event always to help in the way of salvation. The other following indications are all derived from a love that knows no reciprocity but rather is super-abundant in everything: "Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return," says Jesus and "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt." For this reason the Gospel is radically alternative to the self-centred mentality shared by all. This otherness can not be either diluted or watered down. Jesus says: "If you love those who love you, what credit is to you? For even sinners love those who love them." The only reason that justifies such an attitude lies in God Himself. God first, in fact, behaves with mercy and kindness to all, even "to the ungrateful and wicked." Jesus calls the disciples of every age to an ideal that is as high as the sky: "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." It is not a moral exhortation, it is a lifestyle. On this depends our own salvation.
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
