Remembrance of Nunzia, a mentally disabled woman who died in Naples in 1991; with her we remember all the mentally disabled people who have fallen asleep in the Lord. Read more
Remembrance of Nunzia, a mentally disabled woman who died in Naples in 1991; with her we remember all the mentally disabled people who have fallen asleep in the Lord.
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 13,54-58
and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, 'Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter's son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?' And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country and in his own house,' and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Jesus returns to Nazareth, his "homeland," where he is with "his people." He speaks in the synagogue as he had never done before, with a wisdom that was difficult to imagine for a person coming from a simple family, and furthermore without attending any special school or having any renown teachers. This is what the Gospel story suggests when it reports the reactions of his fellow citizens. Teaching in the synagogue consisted in reading and explaining some passages of the First Testament. The reaction of the inhabitants of Nazareth to Jesus' commentary is full of amazement: "Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?" The reaction to Jesus' preaching is marked by the hardness of the heart of those who think that everyone is what he has always been and that no one can truly change! The consequence of this resigned conception of life leads one to lock oneself in one's "village" and do nothing. It is not realism, but sad resignation. And after all, it is ignorance of life. We all get to be connected, to know live what happens in the world, but we are without dreams for anyone, without ambition for a different world and for a better life. We are unable to know Jesus because we are strangers to his dream of saving the world. Instead, the poor, the sinners, those who need to be loved, and those who are waiting for a better world recognize Jesus; they hope in him. Jesus is right in saying: "Prophets are not without honour except in their own country and in their own house." We cannot know the Lord once and for all. We need to listen to him with our heart, every day, and he will reveal the ever-new mystery of his love in the different seasons of our life.
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
