Memorial of Saint John Paul II who died in 2005. Remembrance of Mary Salome, mother of James and John, who followed the Lord till the feet of the cross and laid him in the tomb. Többet
Memorial of Saint John Paul II who died in 2005. Remembrance of Mary Salome, mother of James and John, who followed the Lord till the feet of the cross and laid him in the tomb.
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
Luke 12,54-59
He said again to the crowds, 'When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it's going to be hot, and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times? 'Why not judge for yourselves what is upright? For example: when you are going to court with your opponent, make an effort to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer and the officer have you thrown into prison. I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Why are we unable many times to recognize the "signs of the Lord" even if they are right before our eyes? The answer is simple: because we are so concentrated on ourselves and on our affairs, that we are unable to see anything else. And yet, Jesus says, we are very capable of recognizing the cold and hot. In this case, we raise our eyes up to look at the clouds or we leave our houses to feel the wind. Jesus warns us that we should look up and recognize the time of salvation. The first, greatest sign is the Gospel: we could say it is the sign of signs. Jesus warns: "You [do] not know how to interpret the present." There is an urgency to understand the world in which we are living marked by the tragedy of the pandemic and the consequences connected to it. This speaks to us of a world that is connected both in good and in evil. An objective judgment, a true intelligence of history, open to hope, comes from frequenting Scripture, from listening to the Word of God that enlightens the mind and opens the heart to understand God's signs in human history. This is why one of the most famous theologians of the twentieth century, Karl Barth, loved to say that Christians have the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Holy Scripture is light for our steps. Just as the example that Jesus gives of trying to come to an agreement with your adversary before going to court for the judgement - that then it will be too late. The Word of God helps us to see the signs of God's presence and the need our generation has of the Gospel of love.
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!
