Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 8, 1-3
Now it happened that after this he made his way through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve,
as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The evangelist, as if wanting to give us a synthetic image of the apostolic ministry, shows us Jesus as an itinerant preacher in the company of the "Twelve" and some women. The evangelist has already indicated the pastoral activity at work: he goes from city to city, from village to village, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. He wants to have with him not only the Twelve but also some women. It is a paradigmatic choice of the new style Jesus brings, and Luke is the only one to make a note of it. The evangelist writes that they "had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities," and had decided to follow Jesus, putting all of their belongings in his and his disciples’ service. They were full members of that new group that Jesus had created, making it a true community. This observation by the evangelist is important because it shows how much Jesus went beyond the customs of his time. It was, in fact, unthinkable, according to rabbinic custom, to allow women into a circle of disciples. Jesus, instead, associated them with his very mission, as we will see in other pages of the Gospel. Three are named, Mary of Magdala, freed from "seven demons," meaning a considerable number of evil spirits; Joanna, a woman close to King Herod, who will also be mentioned in the resurrection account; and Susanna of whom we have no further information. They were probably well-to-do persons drawn by Jesus’ preaching who put their wealth at the service of the Master and of the small group. Already apparent in these few lines is the primacy of discipleship, which overcomes all barriers, even those which seem most difficult to cross, as, for instance, the little esteem that the mentality of the time had for women. For Jesus, what counts is to be a disciple. And discipleship bestows on each one the true and most important dignity: that of proclaiming the Gospel and giving witness to love which is entrusted to all the disciples, beyond each kind of distinction. It is a dignity and also a task, a vocation which associates us to Jesus’ own mission. We must not forget that the first person to whom Jesus entrusted the task of communicating the resurrection was precisely Mary of Magdala. This is why the Orthodox Church calls her "the apostle of the apostles."
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
