Today the Gypsy people, including those of Islamic faith, celebrate St. George, who died a martyr to free the Church.
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Today the Gypsy people, including those of Islamic faith, celebrate St. George, who died a martyr to free the Church.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 15,9-17
I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends, if you do what I command you.
I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.
My command to you is to love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Continuing his speech to the disciples during the last supper, Jesus openly confesses the nature of his love: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." Unlike how we normally think, Jesus does not feel he is diminishing himself by saying that his love for the disciples is the fruit of a larger love. Blinded by our need to appear original and not to depend on anyone else, we are ashamed to admit that our happiness depends on the love of someone else who is greater than us. In short, everything has to be mine and has to begin with me, even love. Jesus, on the contrary, shows that his love for the disciples begins with the Father. From this conviction rises his invitation to the disciples to remain joined to him, like branches, as humble men and women. Indeed when we are alone our feelings wither and our arms weaken until we lose the ability to be concerned for or serve anything other than ourselves. A sign of this humility is the ability to rejoice at the joy of those who are near us, just as the Lord invites us to do with him; it is also the inability to be happy if those who are near us are experiencing need or sadness, if they are poor, hungry, or in pain. Jesus promises full joy to those who remain close to him, not small, passing, individual satisfaction. And we will have joy in full if we observe the commandment of love the Lord gave to the young rich man who asked him the way to eternal life: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." Yes, true joy can only be found in loving as much as Jesus has loved us, that is, freely and without limit.
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
