Memorial of Joseph of Arimathaea, disciple of the Lord who “awaited the kingdom of God” Read more
Memorial of Joseph of Arimathaea, disciple of the Lord who “awaited the kingdom of God”
Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 6, 36-38
'Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you.'
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
The passage of the Gospel we have heard is part of the Sermon of the Mount as reported by the Gospel of Luke. Jesus has just proclaimed the need of loving enemies, a passage which radically subverts the culture of the self-centred world of which we are all children. We have heard it yesterday from the parallel passage of the Gospel of Matthew. Now Jesus exhorts his disciples with equally perturbing words: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Being simply merciful is not enough, even though it would be great, considering that our hearts are used to rancour, envy, slander, indifference and violent feelings. Jesus poses a high measure to mercy the same mercy of the Father. Yes, the disciples of Jesus are called to be as merciful as God is. This ideal is as high as heaven; yet, this is what the Lord asks us, his disciples. It is not a moral exhortation inviting us to some merciful deed. Though it involves also this, the Lord calls us most of all to a lifestyle. Being as merciful as God is means having a heart like His, a care like His, a love like His. Mercy is needed in our world. There is too much hardness and coldness, there is an excess of individualism and indifference to others, especially the poor. Mercy changes hearts and history, as Jesus did passing through villages and towns of his time, always with mercy. Therefore he can also exhort us not to judge but to forgive. We always have an ambiguous judgment on the others: we are usually good to ourselves and malevolent towards others. This is what the Gospel says in another part: we are very able to see the speck in the other’s eye and not see the beam that is in ours. The Gospel keeps exhorting everyone to open up his heart. Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you; forgive, and you will be forgiven”. With these words the Lord gives us great evangelical and human wisdom. Let us receive it in our hearts and put it into practice in our lives.
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
