Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Hebrews 3,7-14
That is why, as the Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today! Do not harden your hearts, as at the rebellion, as at the time of testing in the desert, when your ancestors challenged me, and put me to the test, and saw what I could do for forty years. That was why that generation sickened me and I said, 'Always fickle hearts, that cannot grasp my ways!' And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest. Take care, brothers, that none of you ever has a wicked heart, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God. Every day, as long as this today lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, because we have been granted a share with Christ only if we keep the grasp of our first confidence firm to the end.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The author of the letter asks us not only to continue listening to his Word - but he asks us to exhort one another "every day, as long as it is called 'today', so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." There is great pastoral wisdom in this instruction: only an effective and daily fraternity, hence not casual or extemporary, guarantees believers to be faithful disciples. The author addresses the entire community: all "brothers and sisters" have a responsibility to pay attention to each other, especially those who no longer listen to the voice of God. Each disciple is called to keep his/her eyes open on the brother and sister so that they do not get lost. This is why each disciple is entrusted with the 'paraclesis', that is, the power to console in order to prevent the 'sclerosis' of the heart, that hardening that makes man bitter, discontented and self-centred. It is not possible, in fact, to be a disciple of Jesus on one's own account or separated from one's brothers and sisters: one is a disciple only if one listens together to the Word of God. In listening to the Scripture together, in fact, the same Holy Spirit speaks and builds those who listen to him into one body. Continuity in listening makes disciples of those who welcome in their hearts the Word that is sown in them. And the "today" that the letter invokes is daily life enlightened by the Gospel. Thus, we enter the rest that the Lord grants to his disciples. Exhorting one another, supporting one another and praying together for one another builds the community as God's family where mutual love becomes the rule.
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
