Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 6,12-19
Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles':
Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot,
Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.
He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured,
and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
We know from the Gospels about the call of five of the twelve apostles, but we know nothing about the call of the other seven. We can say that today’s gospel scene fills this gap. Jesus chooses his closest collaborators, those who are to help him in announcing the Gospel. The initiative, however, comes from the Father. Jesus, in fact, does nothing without the Father. This is why, before making such a decision, he spent the whole night in prayer. For Jesus, and all the more for every Christian community, prayer is at the beginning of every choice, of every activity. We could say that prayer is the first work which Jesus accomplishes, what is at the foundation of all the other works. Thus should it be for every Christian community. When morning came, he called to himself those he wanted, one by one, by name. The community of Jesus’ disciples, every Christian community, is not an anonymous group; it is not any random assembly made up of people without names and without love. It is a gathering of brothers and sisters. And they know each other by name. We know that the name means the history, the heart, the life of each one. There is something new for those who accept the Gospel: beyond their lives, their names are also changed. Simon becomes Peter, meaning rock, foundation. The Gospel calls each disciple to a new history, to build a new world. Each disciple therefore receives a new name, a new life - busier, more dedicated to the service of love and to the building of a more just world. Jesus, with the group of the Twelve just constituted, comes down from the mountain and immediately finds himself before a great crowd having come from far and wide. For Jesus it was a rather customary scene; now, with the new disciples, he could respond better to so many petitions and to the numerous expectations. This gospel image can be applied to every Christian community. Every community should see in front of it the crowds of this world, the people of one’s own neighbourhood, of one’s own city and of those farther away. All these should be present before our eyes. All, in fact, are tired, sick, needy, often forgotten. The minute they see Jesus, they run to him and press in to touch him. From him, from his Gospel, went out a great power, a great energy which helped lives change. Something similar can occur when we communicate the Gospel or live it with deeds of love and mercy. The crowds, seeing the gospel dimension of the Christian communities, will run to us and will rejoice.
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
