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
Matthew 16, 13-23
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is?'
And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'
'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?'
Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.
So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'
Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to say to anyone that he was the Christ.
From then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.
Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him. 'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.'
But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After landing on the eastern shore and healing the blind man at Bethsaida, Jesus leads his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, on the northern border of Palestine, where the population was pagan. Perhaps Jesus had intended to spend some time alone with his disciples. Every community needs moments like these, not for an empty or false intimacy, but to grow in knowledge and love of the Lord. This is when Jesus asks his disciples what the people are saying about him. He knows very well that many people are eagerly anticipating the coming of the Messiah, understood as a powerful man both politically and militarily. He was supposed to liberate the people of Israel from the slavery of the Romans. In truth, their expectations were totally at odds with Jesus’ mission, which was to free people from that slavery of sin and evil. There were many different rumours about Jesus. Some people in Herod’s court thought he was the Baptist, raised from the dead, while others thought he was Elijah and still others Jeremiah, who, according to beliefs at that time, was going to reclaim the ark and the sacred vessels hidden in Mount Nebo at the time of the exile. But Jesus, after hearing their answers, goes straight to the disciples’ heart and asks: “But who do you say that I am?” Jesus needs to know that the disciples are in harmony with him, that they share his feelings, and that they know his true identity. Peter answers on everyone’s behalf and confesses his faith in him as Messiah. And he is immediately blessed. Peter, along with that small group of disciples, is one of those “little ones” to whom the Father reveals what has been hidden since the foundation of the earth. And Simon, a person like everyone else, made of “flesh and blood”, receives a new vocation from his encounter with Jesus, a new task and a new responsibility: to be a rock, a support for the others, with the power to bind new friendships and loose the bonds of slavery that keep people from following the Gospel. Peter’s response, given in the name of all the others, comforts Jesus and allows him to move toward that true intimacy that is communion with Him and his mystery. Jesus opens his heart to them and reveals what end he will face in Jerusalem: the Messiah is not powerful, but weak, and he will be killed. Peter does not understand what Jesus says and even thinks him a bit crazed. And spurred on by instinct, certainly not by the faith with which he spoke earlier, he tries to dissuade Jesus from his mission and his journey toward Jerusalem. In truth, he is the one who has much further to go on the path of understanding the Lord, just like the rest of us. And Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” as if to tell him to get back to following the Gospel.
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
