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
Galatians 3,1-5
You stupid people in Galatia! After you have had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes, who has put a spell on you? There is only one thing I should like you to tell me: How was it that you received the Spirit -- was it by the practice of the Law, or by believing in the message you heard? Having begun in the Spirit, can you be so stupid as to end in the flesh? Can all the favours you have received have had no effect at all -- if there really has been no effect? Would you say, then, that he who so lavishly sends the Spirit to you, and causes the miracles among you, is doing this through your practice of the Law or because you believed the message you heard?
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Those who look at the Crucifix are preserved from foolishness because they understand the distance that separates them from such an extraordinary love as that of Jesus, a love so boundless that it urges him to die for us. In front of the mystery of this death, how can we think - the apostle suggests - that our works save us? It is as though we could compare our always petty deeds, with Jesus' love for men and women and for the salvation of the peoples. Who among us has loved to the point of dying on the cross? Paul warns that if we forget the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified, pride, and with it blindness, will prevail: we will see our works more than God's overflowing love for all. The proclamation of the Gospel has made the deeds of Christians possible. This is why the apostle asks: "Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?" The Holy Spirit poured into the hearts of the believers allows those who let him free to act, to perform us "miracles." Jesus himself told his disciples just before leaving them: "The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these" (Jn 14:12). It is a lesson we should welcome even today. In a time like ours, which is waiting for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel, it is decisive that believers allow the Spirit to do "great things" so that people may understand the "greatness" pf god's love who gave His Son for our salvation. While he was led to Rome to receive martyrdom, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the Romans: "Christianity is not a matter of persuasion, but of greatness."
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
