Reading of the Word of God
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Luke 11,29-32
The crowds got even bigger and he addressed them, 'This is an evil generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation. On Judgement Day the Queen of the South will stand up against the people of this generation and be their condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, look, there is something greater than Solomon here. On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because when Jonah preached they repented; and, look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.
Praise to you, o Lord, King of eternal glory
Jesus is surrounded by many people. The evangelist speaks of "crowds," in the plural, who were thronging around Jesus. Just as then, there are many people today who are looking for words that comfort and help not to succumb to the many fears that make life difficult. We have been at the mercy of a pandemic that devastated the entire planet. And many raised their eyes to heaven seeking help. We felt in our flesh the fear of being overwhelmed. A sense of being lost affected everyone. And the weakest were the ones hit harder. In the large cities - like Nineveh at Jonas' time - bewilderment was even more serious. And even today, the life in the peripheries of the megalopolis is harder, more violent and hits with additional wickedness the poorest like the elderly and the youngest for whom the door of future is closed. We see mental and physical instability, poverty and marginalization, desperation and anguish grow. And like at Jesus' time, people ask for a sign, a more or less prodigious event, that may free all from anguish. At times people ask for a "saviour" who may take everything in his hands and in an almost-magical way, in fact authoritatively, find the solution. There are no magical events that change life; there are no sudden fortunes that make days more serene. People need a true "sign", a true saviour who helps changing the hearts, making them live with solidarity, be welcoming and able to love. This sign is Jesus. It is he who changes the hearts. This Gospel page teaches us that there is need that the proclamation of the Gospel is again in the streets and squares of our cities, as it happened in Nineveh with Jonah's preaching. The Gospel helps change the heart, to make it of flesh and not of stone anymore. Christians in this generation are called to communicate the Gospel of love to today's generation. The Gospel is the true strength which makes men and women more human. We Christians have the great responsibility of living and communicating it.
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!
