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
John 15,12-17
This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name. My command to you is to love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus does not simply say, "Love one another." He adds the amount that this reciprocal love must be "as I have loved you." From the allegory of the vine one could deduce the quality of Gospel love: the sap the vine emits into the branch is exactly Jesus’ love. The love the disciples therefore is not just any love, it is not born from them, from their traditions, or their personalities or training. Gospel love is a gift that one receives from Jesus himself. It is agape, that is the love of God that is poured into our hearts. It is a totally gratuitous love that forgets itself and which arrives even to give its own life for others. Jesus loved in this way. Christian love transforms the relationship between the Teacher and the disciple, between the Creator and the created: that hierarchical existing distance is erased and it is overcome by a new relationship, that of the gratuitous love of God. Jesus explains this new relationship which has been established between him and his disciples, saying that the substance of the bond with the disciples is friendship. Already Abraham was called a "friend" by God and not his slave, because God hid nothing from him. Even Jesus does not have servants, but only friends. The word "friend" is not a worn-out expression for Jesus. It is a word of commitment for his own life. He feels friendship for everyone, even for Judas who is about to betray him. And if we want to even find a preference in this divine friendship, it is the one that God has for the weakest, the poor, the sinners, and the excluded. It is a preference that we should all live and that should appear much clearer in the Church. The preferential love for the poor is the mark that characterizes the divine quality of love. It is the prophecy that Christians are called to witness at the beginning of this new century. The solid base of friendship can change the world. For Jesus, and therefore, for all Christians, no man, no woman is an enemy. There is no trace of the culture of the enemy in the Gospels. Rather, there is an incredible witness of friendship. His disciples know that this is the treasure that they must bring to the world.
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
