Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 15, 9-11
I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Continuing the discourse to the disciples, Jesus openly confesses the nature of his love: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” Jesus does not feel diminished in saying that his loving the disciples is the fruit of a greater love, as we usually think. Blinded by the need to appear original and to not depend on anyone, we are ashamed to admit that our happiness depends on the love of another greater than us. In sum, everything, even love, must be mine, must start from me. The culture of individualism is what’s gaining more strength and which threatens to disintegrate every communion. Independence from others does not lead to love, but to the contrary: solitude. Jesus, on the contrary, demonstrates that his love for the disciples starts with the Father. The invitation to the disciples to remain bonded to him as humble men and women is born from this conviction, like branches to the vine. We need to realize that staying alone dries up our feelings and weakens our arms, so much as to make us become incapable of being concerned and unable to serve anyone else but ourselves. A sign of this humility is knowing how to take joy in the joy of whoever is close to us, as the Lord has invited us to do with him. And in the same way, not being able to be happy if those who are close to us are in need or are sad, or are poor, or are in pain is a sign of this humility. The promise of Jesus is of a complete joy, not of small or fleeting individual satisfactions. And we will obtain the joy in its entirety if we know how to observe the commandment of love that the Lord has shown to that rich young man who asked him the way to eternal life: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Yes, true joy is only in loving with the same love that Jesus loved, freely and without posing limits.
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
