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
Revelation 14,14-19
Now in my vision I saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the sanctuary and shouted at the top of his voice to the one sitting on the cloud, 'Ply your sickle and reap: harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe.' Then the one sitting on the cloud set his sickle to work on the earth, and the harvest of earth was reaped. Another angel, who also carried a sharp sickle, came out of the temple in heaven, and the angel in charge of the fire left the altar and shouted at the top of his voice to the one with the sharp sickle, 'Put your sickle in, and harvest the bunches from the vine of the earth; all its grapes are ripe.' So the angel set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of God's anger,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John beholds a new scene: six angels; at their centre is Christ with a crown on his head and a sickle in his hand. He is the Lord and Judge of history. Universal judgment is being announced and prepared. The prophet Joel had already described the "day of the Lord" in the Valley of Decision: "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, or their wickedness is great." And on several occasions Jesus himself spoke in terms of vintage and harvest. The first angel warns that judgment is near. He carries "an eternal gospel." It is not the "little scroll" reserved for the disciples, but the announcement of God's primacy and his love for the lives of men and women: "Fear God and give him glory!" We could translate: "Whoever lets him or herself be guided by love will be saved." That is what we read in the last judgment reported by Matthew in chapter 25. The "eternal gospel" is the universal Gospel of love, to which we can join the second beatitude that the apostle places in the book of Revelation: "Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord" because to them is given the kingdom of heaven. Human history is not just a senseless succession of events, nor is it a journey without light. History is born of God's love and in God's love it finds its purpose. Everything else - everything that does not come from God, everything that is not love - is harvested, cut with the sickle and burned, starting with Babylon, the prostitute-city. She is in fact thrown down, and all those who let themselves be seduced by the Beast will be torn to pieces in torment. But Christ, whose blood was shed outside the city, becomes a source of salvation for those who welcome him. Salvation comes from him; it is sufficient to welcome it.
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
