Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 17, 14-19
As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him.
'Lord,' he said, 'take pity on my son: he is demented and in a wretched state; he is always falling into fire and into water.
I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.'
In reply, Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.'
And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy, who was cured from that moment.
Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. 'Why were we unable to drive it out?' they asked.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus is approached by a man who is asking for mercy for his son. Pain often becomes a cry for mercy, because it is unbearable both for those who suffer and those who must watch their loved ones in pain. The young man is not master of himself. We cannot help but think of the many young people who keep falling, prisoners of addictions that make them incapable of control. The most subtle addictions are invisible: they make people think a certain way or make certain choices, like consumerism, which takes control of people’s hearts and ruins them. In actuality, this father had not wanted to bother the teacher, and so had brought his son to the disciples, hoping they could heal him. But they could not. Jesus heals him with a word. The disciples may have been annoyed by their failure, and when they are alone with Jesus, they ask him to explain why they were not able to heal the boy. Jesus responds very clearly and tells them that they had little faith. Even faith as little as a mustard seed would have been enough to work the miracle. But the disciples did not even have that. But Jesus continues to confide in them. He does not deny them his words, his affection, or his corrections. The last sentence he speaks points to a future full of hope for the disciples: “and nothing will be impossible for you.” Faith, however small, always works great wonders: it will move things. Jesus’ words reveal that the disciples did not have faith as large as a mustard seed, the very seed that becomes the great tree to which the kingdom of heaven is compared. This means that the disciples were looking for strength somewhere else. How easily we try to find strength in our personal abilities, the powers of this world, self-affirmation, or even the logic of prestige. How often do we look for the leavening of the Pharisees or Herod: hypocrisy and power over others. These kinds of strength cannot change lives, because only faith can go behind and do what otherwise would be impossible. Faith the size of a mustard seed means that we do not have to try to measure our faith, which is impossible for us men and women, little that we are. All we need is a heart that believes and is capable of entrusting itself in a great love that does not disappoint.
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
