Memorial of the deportation of the Jews of Rome during the Second World War. Read more
Memorial of the deportation of the Jews of Rome during the Second World War.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Romans 4, 1-8
Then what do we say about Abraham, the ancestor from whom we are descended physically?
If Abraham had been justified because of what he had done, then he would have had something to boast about. But not before God:
does not scripture say: Abraham put his faith in God and this was reckoned to him as uprightness?
Now, when someone works, the wages for this are not considered as a favour but as due;
however, when someone, without working, puts faith in the one who justifies the godless, it is this faith that is reckoned as uprightness.
David, too, says the same: he calls someone blessed if God attributes uprightness to that person, apart from any action undertaken:
How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven, whose sin is blotted out.
How blessed are those to whom the Lord imputes no guilt.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
In chapter four of the Letter to the Romans, Paul opens a line of reasoning based on the Bible and totally centred on the figure of Abraham. The apostle’s intention is to show that the "Gospel of justification" is not a distortion of Scripture, but, on the contrary, a confirmation of it, as he wrote in the previous chapter: "The righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets" (3:21). Abraham is the greatest model for believers, because by opening himself to faith, he received the gift of justice. In the book of Genesis we read: "And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6). Abraham’s life gives testimony to the strength that comes from faith. He was justified by faith, not by his works. This is why he is called righteous: God made him righteous through faith and saved him. Abraham therefore becomes the example of the believer justified by faith, precisely because he believed in the Word of God. Thus the apostle can say that Abraham is "is the father of all of us," of all believers. Because of faith, the holy patriarch knew a different destiny: by trusting entirely in the One who had called him, he was freed from the slavery of himself, his works, and his traditions. It was through faith, not through the clarity of his vision or the certainty of his own convictions, that Abraham left his land and set off towards a destiny that he did not know. Through his absolute and complete faith in God, he brought his son, his only son, Isaac, to the mountain to be sacrificed, but God gave him back. On this road opened by Abraham, our father in faith, Paul outlines the path for those who welcome Jesus as the Lord of their 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
