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 Corinthians 15,12-20
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ cannot have been raised either, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance, and so is your faith. What is more, we have proved to be false witnesses to God, for testifying against God that he raised Christ to life when he did not raise him -- if it is true that the dead are not raised. For, if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins. In addition, those who have fallen asleep in Christ are utterly lost. If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable. In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
So far, the apostle has tried to bring order to the community of Corinth: he has answered several moral questions and set down some rules on how to behave, including in the liturgical assemblies. Now he takes on the central mystery of the faith, which is also the heart of the liturgical celebration to which the apostle pays particular attention in this letter: the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection. It is the heart of the Gospel that Paul proclaimed. At the beginning of chapter 15, he warns: "Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved" (15:1). But only, the apostle continues, "if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you" (15:2). Christian faith, even in its content, is a gift that is received. The apostle lashes out violently against those who maintain, "there is no resurrection of the dead" (15:12). This would negate the very resurrection of Jesus and consequently both the Gospel and the faith would be empty. Indeed, salvation is precisely this: Jesus has risen from the dead and has become the "the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep," that is, the first of the children of God who has awakened back to life and reached full salvation. Jesus gave the disciples a foretaste of this when he stayed with them for forty days after Easter. From that Easter morning the disciples, even though they were still incredulous, could see that death no longer had absolute power. Jesus had conquered death. And if the "head" of the body is risen, so too the other members, the disciples, will rise from the dead. The disciples of Jesus of all times, including us, are walking towards the fulfilment of the resurrection at the end of time, when God will be all in all. This is the mystery that we celebrate every Sunday in the Eucharist. After the consecration, the Church has us say, "We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again." We live now what we will live fully at the end of time.
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
