Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Song of Songs 2,8-14
BELOVED: I hear my love. See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills. My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening. My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, 'Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come. For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone. 'Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come. 'My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Liturgy has us meditate on this passage of the Song of Songs while Christmas is at the door. The scene that it describes shows us the beloved imagining that her lover has come to the house where she lives and is looking through the lattice to see her. He is the one who asks her to come out and enjoy the beauty of spring: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." It is an invitation to welcome the Lord, who is coming to visit us. The lovers often go outside in the Song or imagine themselves there: it is as if they were going out to the Garden of Eden. These images are a good description of God's desire to encounter men and women and save them. This is the meaning of the Christmas we are getting ready to celebrate. It is the Lord who once again takes the initiative and runs to Israel. He is near the door; he is about to be born. Like a young man in love, he begs us to come out ourselves to welcome him. The Targum gives this paraphrase of this passage of the Song: "While the people of the House of Israel were living in Egypt, their complaint arose to heaven above... And [the Lord] skipped to the appointed end by virtue of the merit of their patriarchs (who are compared to mountains) ... And he stood behind our wall and looked through the window and peered through the lattice. And He saw the blood of the Passover sacrifice... and He had mercy on us... And at morning time my Beloved answered and said to me, "Arise, O Assembly of Israel, my beloved from of old...Depart, go forth from the slavery of the Egyptians." Origen instead relates the scene to the risen Jesus, who says to the Church, "Arise, my dove, because look, the winter is over...rising from the dead I have tamed the storm and restored peace." God is shocking in his love: he is about come among men and women, and he asks us to welcome him, to let him see our face, to abandon the crags of the rocks of our selfishness and the hiding places of our slavery to go to greet him. It is not the request of a gallant man or one just motivated by respect or gratitude. It is the request of a God who is in love with us; a beggar for our love. This is the mystery of Christmas.
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!
