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
Romans 2, 25-29
Circumcision has its value if you keep the Law; but if you go on breaking the Law, you are no more circumcised than the uncircumcised.
And if an uncircumcised man keeps the commands of the Law, will not his uncircumcised state count as circumcision?
More, the man who, in his native uncircumcised state, keeps the Law, is a condemnation of you, who, by your concentration on the letter and on circumcision, actually break the Law.
Being a Jew is not only having the outward appearance of a Jew, and circumcision is not only a visible physical operation.
The real Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew, and real circumcision is in the heart, a thing not of the letter but of the spirit. He may not be praised by any human being, but he will be praised by God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Book of Deuteronomy already spoke passionately about the necessity for circumcision not only of the flesh, but also of the heart: “Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords.” Many prophets of the First Testament, following the spirit of the text of Deuteronomy, picked up the theme on circumcision of the heart. Jeremiah, for example, said: “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskin of your hearts” (4:4). All of Scripture is an impassioned search on God’s part of men and women’s hearts so that they may indissolubly bind themselves to God. God’s quest for men and women marks the entire history of salvation. We could say that the history of salvation is all “in descent”; it is God coming down to each one of us in order to carry us up to heaven, to “make us ascend” toward communion with Him. Men and women’s response to God’s love is that the other side of this love story is initiated freely by God. The Apostle Paul, - in the new perspective opened up by faith in Christ, that does not cancel out the heart of this love story, but brings it to completion - reminds us that what counts in the Lord’s eyes is the authenticity of one’s faith in God and not merely one’s membership to the people the lord chose for himself. True circumcision, the apostle confirms, is interior, is of the heart and of the spirit. This is Christian “circumcision”, which is rooted in the heart and not in the flesh. Furthermore, in the Letter to the Philippians, Paul, taking on a somewhat polemical tone, that Christians are the ones who are truly circumcised: “For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh” (3:3).
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
