Memorial of Saint Lawrence (+258), deacon and martyr. He pointed to the poor as the true treasure of the Church. Memorial of those who serve them in the name of the Gospel. Read more
Memorial of Saint Lawrence (+258), deacon and martyr. He pointed to the poor as the true treasure of the Church. Memorial of those who serve them in the name of the Gospel.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 17,14-20
As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him. 'Lord,' he said, 'take pity on my son: he is demented and in a wretched state; he is always falling into fire and into water. I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.' In reply, Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.' And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy, who was cured from that moment. Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. 'Why were we unable to drive it out?' they asked. He answered, 'Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus is approached by a man who is asking for mercy for his son. Pain often becomes a cry for mercy because it is unbearable both for those who suffer and those who must be at the side of their loved ones in pain. The young man is not master of himself like the many young people who keep falling, prisoners of addictions that make them incapable of control. In actuality, this father had not wanted to bother the teacher, and so had brought his son to the disciples, hoping they could heal him. But they could not. Jesus expresses first of all a great lament: "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me." These words appear as a rebuke to a generation that resorts to him to receive healings, but does not accept to involve itself in the Father's plan of love. Nevertheless, he immediately has the boy brought to him. Just one word - "Jesus rebuked the demon - and it "came out of him." On seeing the miracle, the disciples are both embarrassed and amazed. And when they find themselves alone with Jesus, they ask him for an explanation as to why they had not been able to heal that boy. Jesus answers with great clarity saying that it was because of their little faith. It is not words or techniques that deliver people from evil spirits, but the love of God, the disciples' true and only power. Jesus' words reveal that the disciples had lacked faith and had sought strength in something else. From that failure, Jesus opens a future of hope for the disciples: "Nothing will be impossible for you." It is the Lord who continues to act in the world and in history also through his disciples.
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
