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
Matthew 5,27-32
'You have heard how it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say this to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye should be your downfall, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of yourself than to have your whole body thrown into hell. And if your right hand should be your downfall, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of yourself than to have your whole body go to hell. 'It has also been said, Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal. But I say this to you, everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of an illicit marriage, makes her an adulteress; and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This Gospel passage continues the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus brings the old law to fulfilment. Now Jesus mentions the sixth commandment: "You shall not commit adultery." This rule obliged both husbands and wives not to betray each other and hence to keep their marriage bond intact. Jesus does not abolish this commandment, but he knows that a mere external observation of it is not enough to guaranty the integrity of a marriage. The heart - a deep, interior involvement - is needed to build a solid and stable family. This is why Jesus continues, "Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." In fact, it is what comes from the heart that defiles a person. It is essential - and not just in married life - to have ties that bind our lives deeply with the lives of others. Love - the commitment to bind oneself to others - should be subject to our passing and selfish feelings. In the case of marriage, and not only, love means to choose to live together for life. This sort of love was introduced at the climax of creation, when, after creating Adam, God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone." It is an affirmation of the superiority of fellowship over loneliness. This leads us to say that man and woman are the image of God together, not by themselves. Fully aware of this dimension, Jesus brings what began in creation to fulfilment: he reminds his listeners of the unbreakable bond of marriage, even in light of the tradition of divorce, and exalts the original vocation, the stability, of the love between men and women and of other bonds. For Jesus, the effort to build up a stable communion between men and women is the very purpose of life. It is not good for man to be alone; it is not good for the family to be alone; it is not good for a city to be alone; it is not good for a nation to be alone. It is good for the whole world to be built up as one, diverse family, from the domestic family to the family of nations. The love that Jesus demands is a commitment to building a world with the features of God's own love. It is a choice irreconcilably opposed to the instinct to satisfy our personal feelings at all costs. This is why Jesus does not hesitate to say, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." And the same goes for our hand. Every concession to selfishness undermines love.
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
