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
Luke 19,1-10
He entered Jericho and was going through the town and suddenly a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man. He kept trying to see which Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way. When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I am to stay at your house today.' And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully. They all complained when they saw what was happening. 'He has gone to stay at a sinner's house,' they said. But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, 'Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.' And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek out and save what was lost.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus teaches us to look around us with the attentive eye of love, which does not judge, which takes nothing for granted, which always finds reason for hope. No one hoped on Zacchaeus for anything: he was a rich man, we would say today "accomplished" even if in dishonesty, but he was also small, short in stature, perhaps even in heart, preoccupied with his business, and his possessions, without many scruples he had accumulated even by stealing. What could one hope for from such a man? More cheating? What is Jesus going to do at his home? This must have been the thought of the many well-wishers who began to "grumble. Grumbling, gossiping, chattering are of those who can only see evil, and it is easy to fall into slander, because in front of sinners it is easy to feel righteous. Jesus looks at Zacchaeus with God's eyes, without contempt, only with love. "I must stay at your house today!" It is the good news for Zacchaeus, it is his Gospel, and ours too, because these words make us wonder if we too do not need Jesus to stop at our house, in our hearts and in our lives. The real sin is not to love. And the Gospel, the good news is to say that God loves everyone and wants to come to our home. Jesus came into Zacchaeus' house so that Zacchaeus would also know love and feel loved. Jesus wants to dine with Zacchaeus, and for the Bible to dine with someone means to be intimate with him, to be part of his life. And it is often difficult for us to think of God in our lives, with our mistakes, our errors, and our sin! Jesus does not reproach Zacchaeus for anything: "He did not look at man's sin, with a view to repentance." Jesus does not condemn him, but enters his home and asks to dine together, to share his life as it is even with his sin because he wants to forgive him. God, perhaps, is still waiting for permission to enter our home and dine with us. And in the joy of that meeting it is not burdensome to "give half of the possessions to the poor, and if he has defrauded anyone, give back four times as much."
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!
