The week of prayer for Christian unity begins. Particular memory of the Catholic Church Read more
The week of prayer for Christian unity begins. Particular memory of the Catholic Church
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Mark 2, 13-17
He went out again to the shore of the lake; and all the people came to him, and he taught them.
As he was walking along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.
When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers.
When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
When Jesus heard this he said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Day after day, the Gospel of Mark unites us to Jesus and the small community that he had gathered, while he takes his first steps in the preaching of the Gospel: “The whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them,” notes the evangelist. Jesus really appeared like the good shepherd who finally gathered the sheep and fed them with good food. His passion for people led him to walk in his region in order to encounter all. Papa Francesco would comment on this by saying that pastors - like Jesus - must remain on the road. And in fact, Jesus continues to walk on the shores of Lake Galilee: it is the place of meetings. As he walks, he sees Levi, a tax collector, who is sitting at the tax office. As soon as Jesus sees him, he calls him, and even Levi is impressed by that call. The word of Jesus, when it reaches the heart, does not leave us unchanged. Levi gets up, leaves everything, and begins to follow Jesus. The little family continues to grow in number. The Master is not interested in the origin or the condition of those he calls to follow him. In fact, to be part of the community of the disciples, there are no foreclosures of any kind; it does not matter how we are, what story or what character we have. Even Levi is considered to be a public sinner because of his office as a tax collector who fattened the coffers of the Roman oppressors. To join the community of disciples, what matters is to listen to the Word of God and put it into practice: exactly as Levi did. For him, as for the first four disciples, it was enough to hear one single word: “Follow me.” Levi got up, left his table, and began to follow Jesus. The evangelist goes on to say that Levi organizes a lunch in honour of Jesus and the disciples. However, Levi invites his friends, publicans like him and therefore sinners. It must be remembered that for the Pharisees, sharing the table meant also sharing impurity. This explains the strong accusation against Jesus, in which is immediately clear the hardness and viciousness of a legalistic mentality with no mercy. Quite different is Jesus’ conception: “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners,” he replies to their accusations. Not that Jesus considered the Pharisees righteous. They were the ones who erroneously thought right of themselves. But certainly Levi and the other diners - like each of us - were weak, poor, and sinful. Well, Jesus came not just for the weak and the sinners, but he came also for the Pharisees. For us, the condition to be saved is not to feel righteous, but rather in need of the Lord.
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
