Feast of Joachim and Anna, ancestors of the Lord. We remember all the elderly who, with love, communicate their faith to the young. Memorial of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome in 1991. With her we remember all who are mentally ill. Read more
Feast of Joachim and Anna, ancestors of the Lord. We remember all the elderly who, with love, communicate their faith to the young. Memorial of Mary, a mentally ill woman who died in Rome in 1991. With her we remember all who are mentally ill.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 13,10-17
Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?' In answer, he said, 'Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted. Anyone who has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has. The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. So in their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive! This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me. 'But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear! In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus has just told the parable of the sower. It is an exemplary parable, in the sense that if we do not understand it, it is difficult to understand the others. In effect, with this parable, Jesus shows his new way of preaching the Gospel, which is through parables. In parables concepts intersect with images and events from daily life that are easily understood by everyone who hears them. The Gospel had to reach everywhere. Anyone could listen to it and be helped. Struck by this choice made by Jesus, the disciples ask him directly, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" The proclamation of the Kingdom of God, the heart of the preaching of the Gospel, had to be communicated clearly but without misunderstandings. For the Jews, the Messiah was supposed to establish the Kingdom by political means, even violent ones, as Zealots were preaching. Jesus did not want to be misunderstood. That is why he chose language that could reach the depths of the heart. Whoever was thirsty for love would become even thirstier. Whoever was not thirsty for love would become even drier. This is how we can understand Jesus' words: to those how have more will be given, and from those who have nothing even that will be taken away. The parable draws in the audience and disarms the Pharisees. Indeed, God decided to reveal the "mysteries of the kingdom" to the little ones and the weak. The Kingdom is for them. That is why Jesus says to the disciples, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." They, like the weak, were given the grace to touch, hear, and see Jesus with their eyes. He is the "parable" of God among us.
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
