Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kobe, a priest martyr for love, who accepted death in the concentration camp of Auschwitz to save the life of another man in 1941. Read more
Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kobe, a priest martyr for love, who accepted death in the concentration camp of Auschwitz to save the life of another man in 1941.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Deuteronomy 34,1-12
Then, leaving the Plains of Moab, Moses went up Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah opposite Jericho, and Yahweh showed him the whole country: Gilead as far as Dan, the whole of Naphtali, the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, the whole country of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the region of the Valley of Jericho, city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. Yahweh said to him, 'This is the country which I promised on oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I shall give it to your descendants. I have allowed you to see it for yourself, but you will not cross into it.' There in the country of Moab, Moses, servant of Yahweh, died as Yahweh decreed; he buried him in the valley, in the country of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor; but to this day no one has ever found his grave. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye undimmed, his vigour unimpaired. The Israelites wept for Moses on the Plains of Moab for thirty days. The days of weeping for the mourning rites of Moses came to an end. Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, and him the Israelites obeyed, carrying out the order which Yahweh had given to Moses. Since then, there has never been such a prophet in Israel as Moses, the man whom Yahweh knew face to face. What signs and wonders Yahweh caused him to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants and his whole country! How mighty the hand and great the fear that Moses wielded in the eyes of all Israel!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
After Moses had spoken to the people and had passed his role on to who would succeed him, God showed him the land he sought and dreamt of. Just because one would not possess it, or touch it, or experience concretely everything, does not mean one could not rejoice and find what one believed in and worked for! To possess something does not always mean to understand it, or preserve it! How much disappointment is born from pride, which makes us believe that what we have conquered is our own, and makes us consider what we do not control as useless. Thus we often make hope impossible and we are incapable of enjoying what we have. Moses went up to the top of Mount Nebo and there the Lord showed him the entire land. It is as if the Lord wanted to reassure Moses that his hope and the fruits of his path were not lost because he would not possess them personally! God promises what humanity truly seeks: the future, descendants, that which goes beyond one's personal limits. It is not by chance that the Book of Deuteronomy says that in spite of his age Moses' eyes were not dull and his energy was unexhausted. Joshua continued after him, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. Whoever wants to preserve what he or she is and has will lose it or take it from others. The Book comments that no prophet equal to Moses was ever born in Israel, for he was the one God spoke to face to face. However, not even his tomb is preserved, because he thought of himself in humble terms, until the end, as a servant of God. That is why his fruits remain. To leave things to others, to follow what the Lord asks of us, even though it may seem little or disappointing in human terms, is the true response to the quest for eternity and fullness that our life calls for.
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
