Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Judges 6,11-24a
The Angel of Yahweh came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah which belonged to Joash of Abiezer. Gideon his son was threshing wheat inside the wine-press, to keep it hidden from Midian, and the Angel of Yahweh appeared to him and said, 'Yahweh is with you, valiant warrior!' Gideon replied, 'Excuse me, my lord, but if Yahweh is with us, why is all this happening to us? And where are all his miracles which our ancestors used to tell us about when they said, "Did not Yahweh bring us out of Egypt?" But now Yahweh has deserted us; he has abandoned us to Midian.' At this, Yahweh turned to him and said, 'Go in this strength of yours, and you will rescue Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you myself?' Gideon replied, 'Forgive me, my lord, but how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least important of my father's family.' Yahweh replied, 'I shall be with you and you will crush Midian as though it were one man.' Gideon said, 'If I have found favour in your sight, give me a sign that you are speaking to me. Please do not go away from here until I come back to you, bringing you my offering and laying it before you.' And he replied, 'I shall stay until you come back.' Gideon went away, he prepared a young goat and from an ephah of flour he made unleavened cakes. He put the meat into a basket and the broth into a pot, then brought it all to him under the terebinth. As he approached, the Angel of Yahweh said to him, 'Take the meat and unleavened cakes, put them on this rock and pour the broth over them.' Gideon did so. The Angel of Yahweh then stretched out the tip of the staff which he was carrying, and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Fire sprang from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the Angel of Yahweh vanished before his eyes. Gideon then knew that this was the Angel of Yahweh, and he said, 'Alas, my Lord Yahweh! Now I have seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face!' Yahweh answered, 'Peace be with you; have no fear; you will not die.' Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh and called it Yahweh-Peace. This altar stands in our own day at Ophrah of Abiezer.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The story of Deborah, the prophetess and judge, immediately precedes the cycle of Gideon, which takes up three chapters. The story opens by recounting the slavery under the yoke of the Midianites who force the Israelites to work for them. At the end of the work, in fact, they seize their entire crop. Gideon, however, tries to trick them by keeping the harvest. Meanwhile Israel did not cease to pray to the Lord that they may once again be freed from slavery. The Lord sees the suffering of his people, he hears their prayer and decides to intervene. The Lord then reveals himself to Gideon while he is working. God presents himself in the guise of an angel who speaks directly to Gideon, as he did with Abraham and Moses. The Lord reveals himself always as a word. "The Lord is with you." Gideon's response to this greeting is plural: "But sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?" For Gideon it was clear that the call of the Lord is never individual, it is for all the people which he represents at that moment. Gideon is not worried for himself or for his personal future, but for the entire people of Israel. The Lord responds by choosing the same Gideon and sending him to win the same evil he complains about, "Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian." Gideon is scared by this answer. How can he, the youngest of a family among the poorest, fight an enemy as powerful as the Midianites? But nothing is impossible with God. The Lord has different criteria than the human ones: he chooses what the world despises. It is a kind of law that fills the entire Bible. The strength of Gideon is in the Lord himself: "I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites." Gideon begins to welcome these words. But he still wants to continue the dialogue with God to be sure that he is the one talking to him. We could say he wants to "see" God with his own eyes. And he "sees" in the context of hospitality. Gideon, as a liturgical gesture, offers his guest some food, but it is the same guest who touches it and makes it holy. And then the angel of the Lord vanished from his eyes. It looks like an anticipation of the meeting of Emmaus. From the very beginning of the history of salvation, hospitality and welcome appear as the place of encounter with God. Jesus says, "I was hungry ... I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Mt 25:31-46). And the Letter to the Hebrews points out: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers; for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it "(13:2).
Het gebed is het hart van het leven van de Gemeenschap van Sant’Egidio. Het is haar eerste “werk”. Aan het einde van de dag komt elke Gemeenschap, of die nu klein of groot is, samen bij de Heer om het Woord te beluisteren en zich tot Hem te richten in het gebed. De leerlingen kunnen niet anders dan aan de voeten van Jezus zitten, zoals Maria van Bethanië, om het “betere deel” te kiezen (Lc 10, 42) en van Hem zijn gezindheid te leren (vgl. Fil 2, 5).
Elke keer dat de Gemeenschap zich tot de Heer richt, maakt ze zich die vraag eigen van de anonieme leerling: “Heer, leer ons bidden!” (Lc 11, 1). En Jezus, meester in het gebed, antwoordt: “Wanneer jullie bidden, zeg dan: Abba, Vader”.
Wanneer we bidden, ook in de geslotenheid van ons eigen hart, zijn we nooit alleen of verweesd. Integendeel, we zijn leden van de familie van de Heer. In het gemeenschappelijk gebed wordt naast het mysterie van het kindschap, ook dat van de broederschap en zusterschap duidelijk.
De Gemeenschappen van Sant’Egidio, verspreid over de wereld, verzamelen zich op de verschillende plaatsen die gekozen zijn voor het gebed en brengen de hoop en het verdriet van de “uitgeputte en hulpeloze mensenmenigte” waarover het Evangelie spreekt (Mt 9, 37) bij de Heer. Deze oude menigte omvat de inwoners van onze hedendaagse steden, de armen die zich bevinden in de marge van het leven, en iedereen die wacht om als dagloner te worden aangenomen (vgl. Mt 20).
Het gemeenschappelijk gebed verzamelt de schreeuw, de hoop, het verlangen naar vrede, genezing, zin en redding, die beleefd worden door de mannen en vrouwen van deze wereld. Het gebed is nooit leeg. Het stijgt onophoudelijk op naar de Heer opdat verdriet verandert in vreugde, wanhoop in blijheid, angst in hoop, eenzaamheid in gemeenschap. En het rijk Gods zal spoedig temidden van de mensen komen.
