Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Matthew 23,1-12
Then addressing the crowds and his disciples Jesus said, 'The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do and observe what they tell you; but do not be guided by what they do, since they do not practise what they preach. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they! Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader headbands and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted respectfully in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi. 'You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers. You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jesus is addressing his last speech in the Temple and he lashes out violently against the "scribes and Pharisees." They are not true shepherds of the people of the Lord. Jesus does not criticize their doctrinewhich he says is right and should be keptrather he lashes out against their behaviour. With their conduct, they manifest a cold and empty religiosity, made mostly of exterior practices that do not reach the heart. Jesus says that they love to widen their phylacteries (small cases containing rolls of parchment where some Bible passages are written, and which are tied at the left arm and on the forehead), but they do not comply with the words the phylacteries contain. The origin of phylacteries' is evocative: The Word of God had to be remembered (on the forehead) and put into practice (the arm). But for the Pharisees it was just an exterior practice that reached the point to betray the very content of the words kept in the small boxes. Jesus also accuses that they "lengthen their fringes", i.e. the braids of fabric fitted with a drawstring, purple and blue at the four corners of the outer garment, but they do not live accordingly. In the book of Numbers is written: "when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them: (Num 15:39). Jesus also wore them to remember God's law. But the Pharisees lengthened them without growing in mercy and love in their hearts. A similar reflection should be undertaken on their habit of searching for places of honour at banquets and the first seats in the synagogues. Finally, Jesus engages in a controversy with the "academic" and official titles that scribes and priests demanded by the people and by their followers. Among those, he emphasizes the most known, "rabbi", meaning "teacher". Even in this case Jesus does not reject the mission of teaching that they should have carried out correctly. In fact, as if with a double conscience, they were putting unbearable burdens on the shoulders of people and they were boasting in their egocentrism. Jesus emphasizes the absolute primacy of God's Word. All believers are subject to it, and should receive it with faith, communicate it with generosity and live it always and wherever. God's fatherhood for our lives stems from the very fatherhood of the Gospel. The Gospel, and not our words or programs, should have authority over our personal and communal life. The temptation to accommodate the Gospel to our traditions and those of the world always looms. Jesus has already stigmatized this temptation, and he asks us to do the same. We will discover that true joy and true greatness lie in being servants to the Word of God. That is, listening to it with faith and communicating it to all till the ends of the earth.
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
