Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
2 Corinthians 11,1-11
I wish you would put up with a little foolishness from me -- not that you don't do this already. The jealousy that I feel for you is, you see, God's own jealousy: I gave you all in marriage to a single husband, a virgin pure for presentation to Christ. But I am afraid that, just as the snake with his cunning seduced Eve, your minds may be led astray from single-minded devotion to Christ. Because any chance comer has only to preach a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you have only to receive a spirit different from the one you received, or a gospel different from the one you accepted -- and you put up with that only too willingly. Now, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to the super-apostles. Even if there is something lacking in my public speaking, this is not the case with my knowledge, as we have openly shown to you at all times and before everyone. Have I done wrong, then, humbling myself so that you might be raised up, by preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing? I was robbing other churches, taking wages from them in order to work for you. When I was with you and needed money, I was no burden to anybody, for the brothers from Macedonia brought me as much as I needed when they came; I have always been careful not to let myself be a burden to you in any way, and I shall continue to be so. And as Christ's truth is in me, this boast of mine is not going to be silenced in the regions of Achaia. Why should it be? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The "super-apostles" who wanted to discredit Paul and his mission, were probably some Judaeo-Christians who claimed, with assertive tones, that they were the interpreters of the original message of the community of Jerusalem. Furthermore they denigrated Paul's lack of eloquence. In his defence, the apostle claims first of all his love for the Corinthians. He acknowledges such a passionate love for them, to the point of being jealous. With the image of the Community as the bride of Christ, the apostle presents himself as the father who watches over her and keeps her to present her unblemished to the groom. It is an effective way to express the intensity with which he feels his pastoral responsibility. He watches carefully because he sees a repetition of the dramatic scene in the Garden of Eden, when Eve let the serpent deceive her, and, indeed, there were those who had been seduced by the serpent, by the "super-apostles," as Paul ironically calls his opponents, who preach a different gospel from the one he did. His purpose was to touch the hearts of his listeners to win them to Christ. This gain was his real reward, the only thing he cared about. This is why he wanted absolutely no compensation on the part of the Corinthians. He received help from the other communities ("I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you"). In general, the apostles and itinerant missionaries were supported by the communities. Paul knew this rule, but he never wanted to partake in it. Indeed the gratuitousness of his preaching the Gospel in Corinth was for him a source of pride and strength; and it was also a sign of his care and love for that community. In the words of the apostle throbs his great love for the Gospel and for the community, for which he worked with so much energy and total gratuitousness and thus he showed a complete fatherly love. He writes that he will not change anything of his behaviour, so strong is his love for them. It is an example of passionate love that the Word of God presents to us today so that we can make it our own.
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
