The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Read more
The prayer for peace is held in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Matthew 7,1-5
'Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard used for you. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own? And how dare you say to your brother, "Let me take that splinter out of your eye," when, look, there is a great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus exhorts the disciples to not judge. The reason is simple; in order not to be judged. The term judge here is intended in the negative sense of condemning. Jesus' affirmation is very clear and grave: God in fact, will pronounce His judgement on us in the same way that we form it on others. Whoever wants a generous and merciful judgement should be generous and merciful toward their brothers and sisters. On the contrary whoever judges in a cold or mean way will receive the same treatment by God. The reason of Jesus' severity lays in the fact that the definitive condemnation of a human being abolishes the hope that he or she may change. Other is God's thought: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live" (Ez 33:11). Jesus comes down in the depth of the human soul to uproot the attitude of always being indulgent with ourselves and hard with others. In the Kingdom of God, people do not condemn one another; rather the large measure of God reigns. With a very graphic image Jesus unmasks the violent habit that pushes us to condemn others for the splinter present in their eyes, while we are indulgent in tolerating the beam which is in our eye. The attitude to condemn springs from a heart that does not see anything but its own "I". The Gospel asks every disciple to pay attention to the other with love and therefore also with a judgement so that he or she may grow in following Jesus. While we need to avoid the judgement of condemnation, we need to discern in mutually helping each other to grow in Jesus' knowledge, in fraternal love, and in the Gospel mission. Fraternal correction is such because it is born from a gaze of love and not of disinterest. Jesus asks us to help each other in following the Gospel, loving one another and communicating his love to all.
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
