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
Jeremiah 13,1-11
Yahweh said this to me, 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.' And so, as Yahweh had ordered, I bought a waistcloth and put it round my waist. A second time the word of Yahweh came to me, 'Take the waistcloth that you have bought and are wearing round your waist. Up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock.' So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as Yahweh had ordered me. A long time later, Yahweh said to me, 'Up, go to the Euphrates and fetch the waistcloth I ordered you to hide there.' So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And there was the waistcloth ruined, no use for anything. Then the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows, 'Yahweh says this, "In the same way I shall ruin the pride of Judah, the immense pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, these people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow their own stubborn inclinations and run after other gods, serving and worshipping them -- this people will become like this waistcloth, no good for anything. For just as a waistcloth clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah cling to me, Yahweh declares, to be my people, my glory, my honour and my pride. But they have not listened."
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Words and signs often accompany the lives of the prophets, especially Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But signs also accompany the words of Jesus in the Gospel, as the Evangelist John notes at the end of his Gospel, "these [signs] are written so that you may come to believe" (Jn 20:31). We too, the disciples of the last hour, are called to listen to the Gospel and see the "signs" of God in history. Connecting to this spiritual outlook, the Second Vatican Council spoke of the "signs of the times," which we believers are called to understand by listening to the Word of God. The Word of God is like the alphabet that allows us to read and interpret history in order to live it according to God's plan. The sign that Jeremiah has to perform is very simple: he must hide a loincloth in a cleft in the rocks along the river Euphrates (this means that Jeremiah has been exiled with his people in Babylon) and then go back and take it after it has been ruined and is "good for nothing." And this is the interpretation the sign is meant to suggest: "Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem." Pride produces nothing, and it reduces life to nothing, just as Jerusalem was reduced to ruins by the devastation. If we do not listen to God who speaks and we only follow ourselves, convinced of our own way of thinking, we will not produce anything good. The Lord clearly explains the meaning of the loincloth to Jeremiah: "For as the loincloth clings to one's loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen." The Lord asks us to cling to him, to live our lives with him, to be his people, his name, his praise, and his glory.
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
