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
Matthew 8,23-27
Then he got into the boat followed by his disciples. Suddenly a storm broke over the lake, so violent that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep. So they went to him and woke him saying, 'Save us, Lord, we are lost!' And he said to them, 'Why are you so frightened, you who have so little faith?' And then he stood up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. They were astounded and said, 'Whatever kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus is in the boat with the disciples crossing to the other side of the lake. During the crossing he falls asleep. Suddenly a storm breaks out. Like the disciples we experience our fragility, how we are without real security and protection. The boat is tossed about by the waves. Jesus continues to sleep. The disciples are gripped by fear and are more than a little bewildered by their master's sleep. He does not seem to care about them. "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" It is a cry of despair and at the same time of trust, as our prayer often is. Certainly, they think Jesus is indifferent. How many times has our little faith made us believe that the Lord does not defend us, does not help us, does not protect us. We forget, in fact, that Jesus is in our same boat. Jesus wakes up and rebukes the disciples for having little faith. They should have known, in fact, that while one is with the Lord, one should fear no evil. Psalm 23 sings: "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me." Jesus is not indifferent, but as serene as one who abandons himself to the Father's protection. Faced with Jesus' calm, the apostles and we too are truly of little faith. All it takes is a word from Jesus, that evil retreats. Those who witnessed the scene - the evangelist seems to suggest that it is not only the disciples, but also those who may have seen from the shore - are astonished. Discipleship (and also conversion) is born out of amazement at seeing that the Word of Jesus calms every storm of life, even when it seems that nothing else remains but sinking.
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
