Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Glory to God in the highest
and peace on earth to the people he loves.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 3, 22-30
After this, Jesus went with his disciples into the Judaean countryside and stayed with them there and baptised.
John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water, and people were going there and were being baptised.
For John had not yet been put in prison.
Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew about purification,
so they went to John and said, 'Rabbi, the man who was with you on the far side of the Jordan, the man to whom you bore witness, is baptising now, and everyone is going to him.'
John replied: 'No one can have anything except what is given him from heaven.
'You yourselves can bear me out. I said, "I am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent to go in front of him."
'It is the bridegroom who has the bride; and yet the bridegroom's friend, who stands there and listens to him, is filled with joy at the bridegroom's voice. This is the joy I feel, and it is complete.
He must grow greater, I must grow less.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
On this last day of the time of Christmas the page of the Gospel reports the last testimony of the Baptist about Jesus before Herod incarcerated him. The forerunner and Jesus, though both preach at the same time, are quite different from one another. It is not only about a geographic difference (Jesus was baptizing in Judea, in lower Jordan, while John the Baptist was in Salim, toward the north) but rather the difference in their mission. John the Baptist, seeing that the figure of Jesus is growing in people's hearts, makes clear once again that Jesus is the messenger of God, not him. John actually wants his disciples and the crowds that flocked to him to understand that Jesus is the Messiah. And it is Jesus that they must accept and follow. In order to make his mission understood, the Baptist calls on the comparison of the wedding: he came to prepare the wedding, to call attention of the bride, i.e. the people of Israel, to welcome the coming bridegroom so that they can live the nuptial celebration. Therefore it is not toward him (John) that they should go, but rather they must go to the bridegroom, Jesus of Nazareth. And yet, John the Baptist clarifies once again that all of this comes from heaven. John reasserts to his disciples and to the crowds who had run to him that Jesus is indeed God’s envoy. And it is He, therefore, who we should accept and follow. In order to make them understand his mission he draws a comparison with a wedding feast: he came to prepare the wedding feast, to draw the bride’s attention that is, of the people of Israel and to welcome the bridegroom who is about to arrive and live out the wedding feast. Therefore, it is not to him (John the Baptist) to whom they should be going, but toward the bridegroom, Jesus of Nazareth. John the Baptist’s testimony recalls the task of every preacher: to prepare the heart of he or she who listens to welcome the Lord. But it is also the task of every believer: to help those we encounter to accept Jesus into their heart. This is the meaning of John the Baptist’s extraordinary affirmation, “He must increase, but I must decrease”. How often do we fall prey to our desire to be at the centre of attention, to show off, and be on stage. Each one of us must decrease our pride so that the love for Jesus may grow in us and in others. Once again John the Baptist stands before us and teaches us how to be disciples.
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
