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
Luke 21, 20-28
'When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you must realise that it will soon be laid desolate.
Then those in Judaea must escape to the mountains, those inside the city must leave it, and those in country districts must not take refuge in it.
For this is the time of retribution when all that scripture says must be fulfilled.
Alas for those with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!
'For great misery will descend on the land and retribution on this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive to every gentile country; and Jerusalem will be trampled down by the gentiles until their time is complete.
'There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the turmoil of the ocean and its waves;
men fainting away with terror and fear at what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Gospel passage speaks of Jerusalem’s destiny. The evangelists Matthew and Mark announce only the end of the temple, while Luke adds also the destruction of the holy city. The Church, having us hear this passage as the liturgical year is about to end, wants to help us to meditate on the end of time. And it is good to pay attention to the end of time, or rather, to the goal towards which our earthly existence is oriented. We do not walk in a space which is empty or swept away by senselessness. The Word of God reveals to us the end of our life: the heavenly Jerusalem. Yes, we walk with eyes fixed on the heavenly city where the Lord awaits us to embrace us together with all the saints. The image of the heavenly Jerusalem - presented in the Book of Revelationis meant to stress that Christian salvation is not at the individual level, but at the communal one. Yes, the Lord does not save us one by one taken individually, but as a community, as a people, as, precisely, a city. Salvation, for Christians, passes through their commitment for the society in which they live, for the city in which they dwell. Christian faith has an inescapable social dimension; it means we are not saved by ourselves, but only if we seek, impelled by the Gospel, to be "leaven" of love for human society, if we seek to make the "light" of the Gospel shine through the byways of the world, if we are "salt" which renders human life full of flavour, that is, beautiful. The Gospel image of Jerusalem besieged and treaded-upon leads us to think also the situation today of Jerusalem, the city of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We cannot forget her; for us too are true the words of the psalm: "Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you Jerusalem" (Ps 137:6). Its hardships are also ours, and our prayer should not cease so that it again becomes the "city of peace," as its very name says. Through it we catch a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem, where all the peoples will gather around the true God. And the present disorder in the world, which the evangelist describes in apocalyptic language, but which also well describes "the distress of nations confused," leads us believers to "stand up and raise [their] heads" because the Son of Man is near, has even come to dwell amidst humans so that the world no longer exist under the yoke of evil and violence. He has come to show us all the way of peace. To us believers, in a very particular way, the Lord has entrusted the responsibility of showing the world the beauty and strength of the Gospel of love and peace.
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
