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
Luke 19,41-44
As he drew near and came in sight of the city he shed tears over it and said, 'If you too had only recognised on this day the way to peace! But in fact it is hidden from your eyes! Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you, because you did not recognise the moment of your visitation.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus is before Jerusalem. Seeing the city he has longed for, he bursts into tears; the Greek term éclausen expresses the strength of Jesus' cry. Before his eyes appears the holy city, the desired destination of every Israelite, the symbol of people's unity. Jerusalem is betraying the calling inscribed in its name: "City of peace." Injustice and violence run through its streets, the poor are abandoned and the weak are oppressed; above all, the city is about to reject the "prince of peace" who has come to visit her. The inhabitants of Jerusalem will not want him inside the walls, not even when he is dead. "He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him," writes John in the prologue of his Gospel. Jesus cries over his cityas he cries over countless cities todaybecause they reject peace and justice, because the hardness of hearts of the inhabitants makes life bitter for everyone; because violence and conflict prevail over solidarity and harmony. And it is a cry that continues today, when in cities everywhere we see an increased level of violence and injustice which penalizes the weak most of all. At the beginning of this century, for the first time in history, the urban population of the world rose above that of the rural. Unfortunately, however, inhumanity has also risen among men and women in cities, which even in the way they are structured, seem to divide the rich from the poor, the healthy from the weak. This Gospel passage must help believers to feel more responsible for living together in our cities, to have more care for it, to have the life of the weak more at heart and to commit themselves to promote spaces that are more human, more beautiful and hospitablefor all. As believers, we should stay next to Jesus as he weeps over our cities because he knows well what their end will be if they do not welcome the Gospel of love: there will not be one stone upon another. Jesus' love for our cities is grand, and though knowing that death awaits him, he decides in any case to enter the cityalmost forcing the wallsto offer his own life for the salvation of men and women.
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
