Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, a sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary in India and Japan Read more
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, a sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary in India and Japan
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 10, 21-24
Just at this time, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it has pleased you to do.
Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.'
Then turning to his disciples he spoke to them by themselves, 'Blessed are the eyes that see what you see,
for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Gospel of Luke began chapter 10 with the sending of the 72 disciples, two-by-two, who would go ahead of Jesus and prepare the towns he was to visit for his arrival. In the evening, after they completed this first mission, they gathered around the Master, filled with joy. They told stories of the prodigious acts that they were able to do. Moreover, filled with both satisfaction and wonder, they exclaimed to Jesus, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” (17). It was the wonderful joy of people who have experienced the power of the Gospel. They probably believed little in the “power” with which Jesus entrusted them, as often happens to us every time we hear the Gospel: it is easy to doubt the transformative power present in the Word of God. Yet that day, perhaps out of their enthusiasm for their first time, they passionately communicated all that Jesus told them. And they immediately bore fruit. At hearing their stories, Jesus rejoiced deeply. The evangelist highlights that “in that same hour,” even while he heard them speaking, as if to draw them closer to him, Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” It was not superficial enthusiasm. What Jesus felt in that moment was much deeper: it was the joy of seeing that the action of the disciples was his same action - the disciples worked in the same Spirit. This is why he affirms, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.” Jesus was with them, accompanied them, and saw what they did in his name. In light of this, Jesus is moved to a prayer of thanksgiving to the Father: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” It is a joy that Jesus feels when he sees the fulfilment of the mission entrusted to him by the Father and the establishment of the Kingdom of heaven through the works of these disciples. Jesus knows that they are not powerful people; rather, they are little and weak. But Jesus says to the Father that this is the way the Kingdom of heaven will be fulfilled among men and women. In a direct way, he unites the disciples to the same relationship that he himself has with the Father. In the familiarity with Jesus, the disciples are able to enjoy the same closeness with the Father in heaven. It is the gift of unity that sustains the very life of the 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
