Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Ecclesiastes 11,9-12,8
Young man, enjoy yourself while you are young, make the most of the days of your youth, follow the prompting and desire of heart and eye, but remember, God will call you to account for everything. Rid your heart of indignation, keep your body clear of suffering, though youth and the age of black hair are both futile. Remember your Creator while you are still young, before the bad days come, before the years come which, you will say, give you no pleasure; before the sun and the light grow dim and the moon and stars, before the clouds return after the rain; the time when your watchmen become shaky, when strong men are bent double, when the women, one by one, quit grinding, and, as they look out of the window, find their sight growing dim. When the street-door is kept shut, when the sound of grinding fades away, when the first cry of a bird wakes you up, when all the singing has stopped; when going uphill is an ordeal and you are frightened at every step you take- yet the almond tree is in flower and the grasshopper is weighed down and the caper-bush loses its tang; while you are on the way to your everlasting home and the mourners are assembling in the street; before the silver thread snaps, or the golden bowl is cracked, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the pulley broken at the well-head: the dust returns to the earth from which it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Sheer futility, Qoheleth says, everything is futile.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Teacher concludes this little book, which he addressed to the young, with a meditation on the "seasons of life." He presents youth as the spring and old age as the winter (v. 2), when the sun will not shine during the day nor the moon and the stars at night; when clear skies will not come after the rain, like spring showers, but clouds will still be there. After the winter of old age there will not be another spring; the sky comes to an end. He compares life to a house, which is at first full of life and joy (the time of youth) but then becomes more and more deserted and ruined. Abandonment and isolation will strike the houses of the rich, where even the guards grow old and tremble and the masters bend down under the weight of the years (12:3). Every day the house seems more and more empty, with death harvesting its victims and leaving so few inhabitants that there is no more need for women to grind flour for its bread. Even its women will grow older ("darken"). The old people no longer work the grindstone in the evening, because they are at the twilight of their lives (12:4). They rise early in the morning, but without the joy of the young, who wake up with a song on their lips. Physical strength gradually abandons the old person, who is afraid of steps, even household steps like the outside stairs that would lead up to the terrace on an ancient Palestinian house (12:5). The village streets become unsafe for the old person. Some foods, such as almonds and grasshoppers, provoke disgust or turn the stomach. The caper, a fruit that usually stimulates the appetite, has no effect. And the time comes for the elderly to go to "their eternal home" (12:5). And they are mourned. With death the silver cord is broken, the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is cast into the fountain. The bowl, which is no longer used as a lamp, and the water of the fountain, which is no longer drawn, are symbols of life. The house falls into ruin because no one lives there; death has brought its owner to his or her eternal home. Men and women are beings on a journey towards death; they are a breath that at the end returns to God. Human life, from the beginning to the end, is in God’s hands (cf. 9:1). Time, life, and its joys are a gift of the Creator. Human beings are not absolute masters. This sad and melancholy song about old age is not the experience of failure; it is the simple recognition that we are "God’s creatures." Thinking of death teaches us to live in our finite and limited condition without fear. By discovering his own limits and fragility, the wise person discovers the freedom of living life as a gift of the Creator. And to entrust it to Him when it reaches its end. God will welcome it in His hands.
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
