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
Psalm 25, 4-5.8-10.14
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes his covenant known to them.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
We are on the threshold of Christmas, and once again the liturgy puts on our lips several verses of Psalm 25, a part of which we have already meditated on. In the introduction to the psalmody we are invited to “lift up [our] heads ” because our “redemption is near at hand.” It is like an invitation to remove from our backs the habits that keep us at the surface of the Christmas season, kissed by the sparkling of the streets, but ignoring the cruel reality of the conflicts, injustices, wars, and endless tragedies that afflict the lives of so many. The liturgy invites us to look up, to wait for the help that the Lord is about to give us. The context from which psalm 25 arises is that of the anawim, the Lord’s poor (v. 16), that is, the believers of Israel who know that they are poor and sinful, but who trust in God alone. Consequently, the prayer of this psalm is a simple prayer that can be shared by all believers who feel their weakness and their sin but who know that they have a father in heaven who will always forgive them. The psalmist seems to want to underline the spiritual characteristics of these poor men and women who trust in God: they “trust” in the Lord (v. 2), they “honour his covenant and decrees” (v. 10), and they “fear” God (v. 12, 14). This is the path these believers follow to know God’s own heart, as we read in the first invocation that opens the psalm: “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul, my God, in you I trust; do not let me be disgraced; do not let my enemies gloat over me” (v. 1-2). These are the words of a believer who trusts in the Lord and his word. He knows well that the Lord is “Good and upright” (v. 8) and does not condemn those who trust in him. Rather it is the believer who wants to know the Word of God and follow it, certain that it is a word of salvation: “Make known to me your ways, Lord; teach me your paths. Guide me by your fidelity and teach me, for you are God my saviour” (v. 4-5). We have reached the time when this Word becomes flesh, drawing near to us so that we can not only listen to it but touch it and even make it our food and drink. That is how the loving dialog between the believer and the Lord becomes real, the dialog that is the very substance of life and salvation. The believer knows that “all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth” (v. 10), but they are not imposed as a cold law to observe or rigid doctrines to put into practice. The life of a believer is an uninterrupted dialogue with the Lord. The Word of God is not an external law, but a dialogue between the Lord and the believer: “The counsel of the Lord belongs to those who fear him; and his covenant instructs them” (v. 14). We could say that this is the very mystery of Christmas, the word that becomes flesh and comes to dwell among us.
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
