Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Read more
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading
Habakkuk 1,2-3; 2,2-4
How long, Yahweh, am I to cry for help while you will not listen; to cry, 'Violence!' in your ear while you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violence confront me, contention and discord flourish. Then Yahweh answered me and said, 'Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read. For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it will not lie; although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long. 'You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faithfulness.'
Psalmody
Psalm 94
Antiphon
Come, let us sing with joy to the Lord.
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us.
Let us come before him, giving thanks,
with songs let us hail the Lord.
A mighty God is the Lord,
a great king above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his.
To him belongs the sea, for he made it
and the dry land shaped by his hands.
Come in; let us bow and bend low;
let us kneel before the God who made us
for he is our God and we
the people who belong to his pasture,
the flock that is led by his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice!
'Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as on that day at Massah in the desert
when your fathers put me to the test;
when they tried me, though they saw my work.
For forty years I was wearied of these people
and I said : "Their hearts are astray,
these people do not know my ways."
Then I took an oath in my anger:
'Never shall they enter my rest.'"
Second Reading
2 Timothy 1,6-8.13-14
That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hands. God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, look after that precious thing given in trust.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 17,5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.' The Lord replied, 'If you had faith like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you. 'Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal at once"? Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards"? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty." '
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
"O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!' and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise." These are the words which begin the dialogue between the prophet Habakkuk and God. The situation that appears before the eyes of the prophet is marked by disgrace, grief, violence, hostility, and contention; God seems not to notice, as if he is powerless or distracted. And yet, it is about his people who are living through bitter slavery! The prophet seems to challenge God to give him a response; he will stand as a witness and sentinel at his post until God responds. The response comes. God speaks to the prophet, and through him, to all people, "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that the runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time... If it seems to tarry, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay." The prophet says that the one who does not have an upright heart will succumb, but the just one will live by faith. It is the faith the apostles ask Jesus "Increase our faith!" It is perhaps the prayer that all of us must make in these times. We will hear the response of Jesus, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you" (v. 6). There is no need for a great faith, Jesus seems to say. It is enough to have even a small faith, so long as there is faith, that is trust in God more than in any other thing. Of this type of faith merely a "grain" is enough; it is enough to move even mountains. The proof is indicated in the final phrase of the gospel passage, "When you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, "We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done." The disciple is called to do his or her duty to completion and at the end to say, "We are worthless slaves." For us, accustomed to claiming merits and recognition, these words sound strange indeed. But it is precisely on these that we can base our trust in a new future.
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
