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
Mark 6, 34-44
So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.
By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, 'This is a lonely place and it is getting very late,
so send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.'
He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' They answered, 'Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?'
He asked, 'How many loaves have you? Go and see.' And when they had found out they said, 'Five, and two fish.'
Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass,
and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties.
Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and began handing them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all.
They all ate as much as they wanted.
They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish.
Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The verses preceding the passage of the Gospel we heard reports of Jesus’ decision to offer his disciples a moment of rest since “they had no leisure even to eat” (6:31) for the many people coming to him. And maybe even Jesus took advantage of that moment. They decided to go on the other shore of the sea. But when they reached the place they found a huge crowd waiting for them. The evangelist immediately notes that Jesus “had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Now that they found the shepherd they would not leave him anymore, rather they would try to precede him, like in this case. Moved in his heart, Jesus stayed on the shore and taught them for the entire day. All of them were hungry for true words for their lives, so much so that they remained to listen to that young prophet well into the evening without anyone leaving. Jesus truly was the new pastor who would not let his sheep go without nourishment, without bread. Towards evening, the disciples, thinking themselves wiser than their Teacher, suggested that he send the people away to procure their own food from the nearby villages. Probably in the opinion of the disciples, Jesus had spoken for too long: too many words! It was now time to let the crowds who had praisefully stayed to listen to him to go home! But Jesus’ heart is much larger than the narrow-mindedness of his disciples. He knows very well that we need nourishment for the heart and also for the body. Often we think exactly the opposite. How much care we have for our body and how little for our heart! Jesus cares about both. This is why he does not send anyone away while they were listening to him, so he does not send them away for dinner. He commands everyone to sit as if around a table. He asks for the five loaves of bread they had found among people to be brought to him and then he multiplies them as he had previously multiplied his words: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Then he asks his disciples to distribute to all what he himself had multiplied. And everyone was filled. This Gospel page asks to be “multiplied;” that is, put into practice by every Christian community. The multiplication of the communication of the Gospel and love for the poor is the way that the Lord sets out for the Church today so that it may attract all those who are hungry and thirsty for love and hope. If the Gospel multiplies easily, also the tables for bread will multiply. Whoever witnessed it knows that this way is truly miraculous.
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
