Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 11,14-23
He was driving out a devil and it was dumb; and it happened that when the devil had gone out the dumb man spoke, and the people were amazed. But some of them said, 'It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he drives devils out.' Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven; but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, 'Any kingdom which is divided against itself is heading for ruin, and house collapses against house. So, too, with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last?-since you claim that it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out. Now if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do your own sons drive them out? They shall be your judges, then. But if it is through the finger of God that I drive devils out, then the kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares. So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil. 'Anyone who is not with me is against me; and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Gospel passage tells the episode when Jesus casted out from a man a spirit that made him mute. The healing amazed the crowd. It was clearly a messianic gesture; Satan was chased away and deprived of his power over men and women. But, if the crowd was amazed, others were irritated by Jesus' fame and devised a way to discredit him. They even went so far as to accuse him of serving God's adversary, Beelzebub, the leader of demons. Still others asked for a sign to be convinced that his power came from above. It was, however, evident the power that Jesus exercised against Satan, which the evangelist Luke repeatedly described as a world of evil spirits taking possession of people's souls and condemning them to a violent, hard life, separated from others. The devil - which means division - appears as the inspirer of all division. Even the divisions we see multiplying in our time among men and women, among peoples and among nations. The devil, the prince of evil, does not cease to operate so that enmity spread everywhere. Jesus responds to those who accuse him of being at the service of the devil by showing the contradiction into which they fall. His action of liberation of men and women is all in opposition to Satan and his servants. For indeed the Lord works only good and spreads only love. Jesus confirms his action of being sent by God to free men and women from all slavery by telling a very short parable. Jesus reminds his listeners that we are in a struggle against evil, but finally one "stronger" than evil has come. There is no doubt that life is a struggle between good and evil. A struggle that begins in the heart of every human being. Here is the first battlefield. And Jesus came to dwell among us as one who is stronger than evil. He can guard the house; he can guard the heart of each one of us when it is put to the test by temptations. That is why he invites us to trust him and to accept his Word. He himself will dwell in us and defend us from all evil.
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
