Memorial of Father Aleksandr Men', Orthodox priest from Moscow, barbarically murdered in 1990 Read more
Memorial of Father Aleksandr Men’, Orthodox priest from Moscow, barbarically murdered in 1990
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 6, 12-19
Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles':
Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot,
Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.
He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured,
and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In the Gospels, we know the vocation of five of the twelve apostles, but we know nothing about the vocation of the other seven. You could say that this Gospel scene fills the gap. Jesus chose his closest collaborators, who will help him in proclaiming the Gospel. The initiative, however, comes from the Father. Jesus, in fact, does nothing without the Father. That is why, before making such a decision, he spends the whole night in prayer. For Jesus, and for every Christian community, prayer is the origin of every choice, every action. We could say that prayer is the first work that Jesus does and which becomes the foundation of all his other works. And so it must be for the life of every Christian community. When morning came, Jesus called to him those he wanted, one by one, and by name. The community of the disciples of Jesus, every Christian community, is not an anonymous group or an assembly made up of people without any name and without love. We all know from personal experience the sadness of loneliness, the anguish of not being called by name, as if everyone were abandoned to his or her own fate. The community of Jesus is not made up of anonymous people, but of brothers and sisters who know each other and who are called by name, as happens in every family. Friendship, fellowship, and mutual knowledge are the substance of communion. But communion does not come from us only. It is the result of mutual friendliness; it flows from the call of Jesus to whom we obey. When called by Jesus, one’s name will not be the same as before; Jesus himself gives us a new name, that is, a new heart, a new task, a new story. Simon is called Peter, the rock, the foundation. Jesus calls each disciple and gives him a particular task in building a new world. The new name that one receives is a sign of a new life that he or she is called to live: a more active life, a life more devoted to service to love and to building a more just world. Jesus, with the group of the Twelve he had called, comes down from the mountain and finds himself immediately in front of a large crowd arriving from all sides. For Jesus, such a scene is by now normal. Now, with his new disciples, he can better respond to the crowd’s demands and expectations. This image we find in the Gospel should be applicable to every Christian community. Each community should see in front of itself the crowds of this world and the people in their neighbourhoods, cities, and in far-off cities. Everyone must be present before our eyes. Everyone, in fact, is tired, sick, needy, and often forgotten. And they should run towards us, as though they were running towards Jesus. From him, from his Gospel, came a great strength, a great energy that helped to change lives. Something similar happens to us when we communicate the Gospel and live it out with deeds of love and mercy. The crowds, seeing the evangelical dimension of the Christian communities, will flock toward them and will rejoice.
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
