Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 18,9-14
He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and despised everyone else, 'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like everyone else, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get." The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." This man, I tell you, went home again justified; the other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, but anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.'
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jesus often talks to his disciples about the importance of prayer. Above all, he gives them an example: the evangelists often depict Jesus in prayer. And he talks about it often: he exhorts them to persevere in prayer and to have faith in God, who always listens and responds. Today's parable condemns the presumption of those who come to the temple to pray and believe themselves righteous. Humility is an indispensable part of praying to the Father who is in heaven. Indeed, it is easy to present ourselves to the Lord with the attitude of the Pharisee, who presumes he is righteous. It is harder to consider ourselves sinners in need of forgiveness and mercy. With this parable, Jesus warns us that pride and presumption push us to trust more in ourselves than in God and, what is worse, push us to judge other people harshly and despise them. Full of himself, the Pharisee goes up to the temple to praise himself before God. Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector, despite being well off and feared by the people because of his profession, feels that he needs help and mercy. Consequently, he goes up to the temple not to insist on his rights, but to ask for help. In this case, he is more like to a beggar who asks for forgiveness than a rich person who wants to demonstrate his goodness. Jesus clearly affirms that the latter is forgiven, because he does not trust in himself, his works, his possessions, or his reputation, but only in God. On the contrary, the Pharisee, full of himself and satisfied with his works, goes back empty handed. How often in our lives do we behave like the Pharisee! Let us think of how much trouble we have recognizing our sins. Instead we are experts at judging the evil in others. The evangelical paradox is clear: those who lift themselves will be humiliated and those who humble themselves will be exalted. The psalmist sings, "Those who are poor seek the Lord." Let us learn humility, which is the way to encounter God, instead of lifting ourselves up above others and setting ourselves up as disdainful judges, believing ourselves better. The tax collector shows us the way to present ourselves to God: we must recognize that we are sinners and come to Him to ask for mercy and forgiveness.
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
