EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day
Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church
Thursday, August 5


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

Matthew 16,13-23

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?' Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.' Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to say to anyone that he was the Christ. From then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him. 'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.' But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do.'

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus leads his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, where perhaps he intended to stay aside with his disciples. Every community needs moments like these to grow in the Lord's knowledge and love. It is in then that Jesus asks his disciples who the people say he is. Voices about Jesus varied. In Herod's court some thought he was John the Baptist back from the dead. Others thought he was Elijah, while some said he was Jeremiah, who, according to beliefs at the time, was to reclaim the ark and its sacred objects that were hidden in Mount Nebo at the time of exile. But Jesus, after hearing their answers, asks his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" Jesus needs his disciples to be in sync with him, that they have a "common feeling" with him and that they know his true identity of Messiah sent by God. Peter speaks and answers on behalf of them all and confesses his faith in him as the Messiah. That modest group of disciples belongs to those "little ones" to whom the Father has revealed what is hidden since the foundations of the earth. And Peter, a person like all, made of "flesh and blood", in that encounter with Jesus receives a new vocation, a new task and responsibility: to be a rock, a support for the others, with the power to bind new friendships and loose the bonds of slavery that impede others from following the Gospel. Peter's response, given in the name of all the others, comforts Jesus and permits him to open his heart to them and to reveal what end he will face in Jerusalem: the Messiah is not powerful, like al think and expect, but a weak and defenceless man who will be even killed, but on the third day he will be risen from the dead. Peter does not understand what Jesus is saying and even thinks Jesus is out of his mind. Spurred on by instinct, certainly not by the faith that made him speak earlier, he tries to dissuade Jesus from his mission and journey toward Jerusalem. In truth, it is Peter who has much further to go before he understands the Lord, as we all do. And Jesus says to him: "Get behind me, Satan!" Jesus is telling him that he needs to put himself back on the path of following the Gospel.

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!