Memorial of Saint Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem. Prayer for Jerusalem and for peace in the Holy Land. Read more
Memorial of Saint Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem. Prayer for Jerusalem and for peace in the Holy Land.
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jeremiah 20,10-13
I heard so many disparaging me, 'Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!' All those who were on good terms with me watched for my downfall, 'Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we shall get the better of him and take our revenge!' But Yahweh is at my side like a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, vanquished, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs. Yahweh Sabaoth, you who test the upright, observer of motives and thoughts, I shall see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you. Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of one in need from the clutches of evil doers.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The passage that we heard today is taken from the last and most dramatic of the "confessions" - of the outbursts, we might say - of Jeremiah. The text has the traits of a prayer spoken by the prophet after having been flogged and locked up in a prison for the entire night. Jeremiah speaks of the conflict that has developed between his prophetic mission and the opposition it encounters; he finds himself completely misunderstood and abandoned; all he sees around him are enemies who want to denounce him and hurt him; even his former friends are waiting to see if he stumbles, as if they would rejoice in it. And the prophet, who has to fight alone, feels the bitterness of the situation: "Terror is all around! All my close friends are watching for me to stumble" (v. 10). But, despite being surrounded by such hostility, Jeremiah does not let himself be caught off guard by feelings discouragement. Instead he strengthens his trust in the Lord: "But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail" (v. 11). His difficulties do not lead him to withdraw into himself and brood with resentment and anger. If anything his indignation at the Israelites’ hardness of heart confirms him in his ministry of prophecy. He knows that the Lord is at his side. Coming from a worldview that is still rooted in the Old Testament, his prayer calls for revenge against his enemies, which from an evangelical prospective will become a prayer for forgiveness so that these enemies might be touched by God’s mercy and change their lives. But the certainty of the Lord’s victory remains firm, as does the joy we feel at that victory: "Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers" (v. 13).
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
