Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Ezekiel 43,1-7
He took me to the gate, the one facing east. I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east. A sound came with him like the sound of the ocean, and the earth shone with his glory. This vision was like the one I had seen when I had come for the destruction of the city, and like the one I had seen by the River Chebar. Then I fell to the ground. The glory of Yahweh arrived at the Temple by the east gate. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; I saw the glory of Yahweh fill the Temple. And I heard someone speaking to me from the Temple while the man stood beside me. He said, 'Son of man, this is the dais of my throne, the step on which I rest my feet. I shall live here among the Israelites for ever; and the House of Israel, they and their kings, will never again defile my holy name with their whorings and the corpses of their kings,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Book of Ezekiel opened with the grand vision of the Glory of God: God revealed himself to men and women in all of his splendour. It makes us think of the vision that the disciples had on Mount Tabor when Jesus was transfigured before them and appeared in his splendour. Jesus is indeed the full manifestation of the Glory of God, the dimension of God and his love for us that we can contemplate. The Gospel of John explains this very well from the beginning: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14). But this extraordinary presence of God in the world is obscured by sin. This is why at the end of chapter 11, the prophet Ezekiel announces that the glory of God abandons the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, the place where people could contemplate the glory of God and enjoy God’s presence. Now that the Temple has been rebuilt and purified (chapters 40-42), the Lord enters it again and his glory takes possession of it. Once again God is in his people’s midst, and they can enjoy his presence. Like Ezekiel, we too cannot keep from falling to the ground before the extraordinary and splendid presence of the Lord. None of us can lay claim to justice and goodness in front of the grace of a God who deigned to come and live among us despite the sin and the pettiness of our lives. Here only humble and poor men and women can enjoy his presence. The proud and those who trust in themselves and in their wealth or power never bow before this presence. They remain standing, but they stand on emptiness. Those who believe contemplate the glory of God that is manifested in the Word, in the beauty of the Liturgy, and in the gift of the Eucharist. But there is another manifestation of the glory of God: in the wounds of the crucified one whom we encounter in the pain of the poor of the world. Let us pray to the Lord that we may not contribute to driving his presence, which is so beautiful, from us and from the world, a presence from which we cannot be cut off unless we close in on ourselves in selfishness and pride. The Lord always reveals himself to us and we open our eyes and heart to welcome him and rejoice in his glory.
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
