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
1 Kings 19,9.11-16
There he went into a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of Yahweh came to him saying, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' Then he was told, 'Go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.' For at that moment Yahweh was going by. A mighty hurricane split the mountains and shattered the rocks before Yahweh. But Yahweh was not in the hurricane. And after the hurricane, an earthquake. But Yahweh was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, fire. But Yahweh was not in the fire. And after the fire, a light murmuring sound. And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then a voice came to him, which said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' He replied, 'I am full of jealous zeal for Yahweh, God Sabaoth, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and now they want to kill me.' 'Go,' Yahweh said, 'go back by the same way to the desert of Damascus. You must go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram. You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel-Meholah, as prophet to succeed you.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Elijah ascends Horeb and enters a cave to spend the night. This is as if to signify the necessity of entering into oneself again, into the depth of one’s heart, into that interior room where it is possible to encounter the Lord. And while he is there he does indeed hear the very voice of the Lord. It is not the angel, but God himself who asks him, "What are you doing here Elijah?" It is a clear and direct question, like the one posed to Adam after the sin, or to Cain after he killed his brother. Elijah feels questioned by the Lord and responds in a direct way describing what happened to him because of his zeal for the Lord. The text says: "I have been very zealous for the Lord!" Who of us could respond with such immediacy and sincerity? The reason for his being in danger is, in fact, his zeal for the Lord. But the Lord does not to respond to Elijah who is still embittered for how he was treated. Elijah remains alone with his silence. Elijah is still a prisoner of himself and his history, of his--perhaps--heroic exploits, but exploits always centred on oneself. It is true that he is full of passion for the Lord but he has run away from his people. It is not possible to be jealous for God if one is not jealous for His people; it is not possible to love God without loving His people too. The Lord cannot be separated from his people. For this reason we cannot be saved alone, but only in communion with God and with our brothers and sisters. God pursues the prophet and asks him to come down from the mountain. And then "there was a great wind...so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but God was not in the wind." But Elijah did not come out; he remained in the cave, closed in his personal dimension. Perhaps he was waiting for what happened to Moses on Horeb to happen to him. In Exodus it is written: "There was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain...Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke... the whole mountain shook violently" (Ex 19: 16-18). And this happened because "the Lord descended in the middle of the fire." And we too, certainly not because close to Elijah’s time, are still tied to an old language; we think that God is present in storms and natural calamities. The Lord is not in earthquakes or in storms; and he certainly is not in the wars and conflicts that destroy the lives of millions of people. God does not live in these earthquakes that shake the earth, in these fires that devour people as in hell. But there comes a light wind that caresses Elijah. Immediately the prophet covers his face with his coat and leaves the cave. The soft wind, this breath of the Spirit, the breath of love dismantled the armour of his defences, and opened wide the heart of the prophet to the horizons of the world. The light wind is the weak strength of love. It is with love, this weak force, that we rebuild the torn fabric of the children of God. The Lord is in the soft wind, the Lord is in love. Responding to the repeated question, the prophet repeats the same words. But at this point it is God himself who orders him to take up the journey. Elijah must fulfil his mission in order to not leave the people of God without the light of God’s word. Certainly, he has to uproot that which destroys, but he must choose Elisha so that he can continue his mission.
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
