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
Luke 17,20-25
Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was to come, he gave them this answer, 'The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation and there will be no one to say, "Look, it is here! Look, it is there!" For look, the kingdom of God is among you.' He said to the disciples, 'A time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of man and will not see it. They will say to you, "Look, it is there!" or, "Look, it is here!" Make no move; do not set off in pursuit; for as the lightning flashing from one part of heaven lights up the other, so will be the Son of man when his Day comes. But first he is destined to suffer grievously and be rejected by this generation.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus inaugurates the kingdom of God on earth, but not in "with things that can be observed", i.e. not in an impressive, spectacular form. No one, in fact, can say "There it is" or "Look here it is", since it is of a spiritual, inner nature. Jesus is the 'new time' of salvation. The kingdom of heaven, i.e. the kingdom where love and mercy 'reign', begins precisely with the coming of the Son of God to earth: his healing action and his preaching fight evil that loses more and more ground until the final defeat that comes through his death and resurrection. This is why Jesus can say that the kingdom of God "is among you," that is, among those who hear and put his word into practice. Participation in the kingdom, in this dream of liberating the world from the power of the devil and evil, also involves suffering and pain, starting with Jesus himself. This is the meaning of the words Jesus said: "the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force" (Mt 11:12). In short, there is an unceasing struggle between good and evil. Jesus radically defeated evil, which nevertheless continues to have as its tail twitches. In those days - Jesus says addressing directly to the disciples and no longer to the Pharisees - when the trial will be hard, the disciples will want to see "even one of the days of the Son of Man," that is, to have some consolation. And there will be none. That is not why they should leave the Master to follow the false idols appearing on the scene. They must not look "there" or "here" for the Messiah. Jesus remains the only Lord and he alone they must follow. The Gospel remains steadfast, it is like the "lightening that flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other;" its proclamation in fact pierces the darkness of the world and reveals Jesus' face.
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!
