Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Don Andrea Santoro, a Roman priest killed in Trebizond, Turkey, in 2006.
Többet
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Memorial of Don Andrea Santoro, a Roman priest killed in Trebizond, Turkey, in 2006.
First Reading
Isaiah 58,7-10
Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin? Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yahweh's glory come behind you. Then you will cry for help and Yahweh will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words, if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon.
Psalmody
Psalm 112
Antiphon
Praise the name of the Lord.
Praise, O servants of the Lord
praise the name of the Lord!
May the name of the Lord be blessed
both now and for evermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
praised be the name of the Lord!
High above all nations is the Lord,
above the heavens his glory.
Who is like the Lord, our God,
who has risen on high to his throne
yet stoops from the heights to look down,
to look down upon heaven and earth?
From the dust he lifts up the lowly,
from the dungheap he raises the poor
to set him in the company of princes,
yes, with princes of his people.
To the childless wife he gives a home
and gladdens her heart with children.
Second Reading
1 Corinthians 2,1-5
Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God. I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ. I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling and what I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit, so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 5,13-16
'You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people's feet. 'You are light for the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
Immediately after the Sermon of the Beatitudes, Jesus turns to the disciples and tells them that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are still at the beginning of Jesus' evangelical preaching and the disciples certainly cannot boast of exemplary conduct, as of "men of the beatitudes." The function of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world must never be neglected. In front of these words, each of us knows well that we are poor persons. We really are little compared to the task we are assigned and the beatitudes we heard last Sunday. How is it possible to be salt and light? Aren't we all below sufficiency? The apostle Peter, in amount of awareness, when he recognized the Lord, said, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" This sentence that we all can, better we should, pronounce, comes too few times from our lips. Generally, we have good consideration of ourselves. And if sometimes we insist on our limits, we do it with a renouncing spirit more than out of humility that is not to be light and salt even if we can do it. It is to say that what we call unworthiness becomes step by step passivity, then laziness and finally renunciation. But the Gospel insists that we, poor men and women, are salt and light. We are not such by ourselves, but only if we have a bit of true salt and true light that is Jesus of Nazareth. Light does not come from our personal gifts, from a good temperament, or even from our virtues. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Christians of Corinth, recalls that he did not present himself among them with sublime words: "I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." Yet, despite his weakness, his fear and trembling, Paul defended the honesty of his ministry: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." The weakness of the Apostle does not obscure the light of the proclamation, nor does it diminish the strength of preaching and testimony. On the contrary, it is a pillar of it and Paul gives it reason: "So that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God."
Paul adds: "Those who boast, boast in the Lord." Our pride is never in ourselves, but in God. God's grace and his love shine in our weakness; we cannot appropriate them, they always surpass us and do not abandon us. Jesus adds: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." It is the invitation to us to become Gospel's workers. And the prophet had already explained what this consists of: "Share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor in to your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin." It is the charity, the light of the Lord, a large charity that broadens the heart.
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!
