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
Job 38,1.12-21; 40,3-5
Then from the heart of the tempest Yahweh gave Job his answer. He said: Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post, to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it? She turns it as red as a clay seal, she tints it as though it were a dress, stealing the light from evil-doers and breaking the arm raised to strike. Have you been right down to the sources of the sea and walked about at the bottom of the Abyss? Have you been shown the gates of Death, have you seen the janitors of the Shadow dark as death? Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth? Tell me all about it if you have! Which is the way to the home of the Light, and where does darkness live?- You could then show them the way to their proper places, you could put them on the path home again! If you do know, you must have been born when they were, you must be very old by now! Job replied to Yahweh: My words have been frivolous: what can I reply? I had better lay my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once, I shall not speak again; I have spoken twice, I have nothing more to say.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
God finally speaks, as Job had been asking from the beginning of the book. But the answer appears strange. It seems that the Lord does not care at all about answering Job's questions and demands directly. God challenges the man who has dared to question his actions. These two chapters form a long question posed by God to Job, which is summarized in the initial challenge: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge. Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me." And God asks Job about the works of creation, first nature and then animals. How can Job think that God is outside of human history if God is not only the source of all that exists, but also the one that keeps all the works of creation alive? Today science tries to explain everything and finds the origin of every event. Thus we end by eliminating any reason to be awestruck by creation. Why should we see God's benevolent presence behind the things we see every day? In the end, ancient cultures did not know the causes of many phenomena that we are now able to explain. They easily attributed the causes of the phenomena to divinities, to the point of making the phenomena themselves divine, as happened, for example, not only in ancient Greece or Rome, but also in many other cultures. And yet this is precisely the novelty of the Bible: it does not consider any created thing divine. In this it is profoundly "secular". But God's presence emerges over everything: God maintains the wondrous order of creation, something worthy of being amazed by, because we will never be masters of it all. We too need to let ourselves be questioned by the Lord, so that our wisdom will not become foolishness.
Het gebed is het hart van het leven van de Gemeenschap van Sant’Egidio. Het is haar eerste “werk”. Aan het einde van de dag komt elke Gemeenschap, of die nu klein of groot is, samen bij de Heer om het Woord te beluisteren en zich tot Hem te richten in het gebed. De leerlingen kunnen niet anders dan aan de voeten van Jezus zitten, zoals Maria van Bethanië, om het “betere deel” te kiezen (Lc 10, 42) en van Hem zijn gezindheid te leren (vgl. Fil 2, 5).
Elke keer dat de Gemeenschap zich tot de Heer richt, maakt ze zich die vraag eigen van de anonieme leerling: “Heer, leer ons bidden!” (Lc 11, 1). En Jezus, meester in het gebed, antwoordt: “Wanneer jullie bidden, zeg dan: Abba, Vader”.
Wanneer we bidden, ook in de geslotenheid van ons eigen hart, zijn we nooit alleen of verweesd. Integendeel, we zijn leden van de familie van de Heer. In het gemeenschappelijk gebed wordt naast het mysterie van het kindschap, ook dat van de broederschap en zusterschap duidelijk.
De Gemeenschappen van Sant’Egidio, verspreid over de wereld, verzamelen zich op de verschillende plaatsen die gekozen zijn voor het gebed en brengen de hoop en het verdriet van de “uitgeputte en hulpeloze mensenmenigte” waarover het Evangelie spreekt (Mt 9, 37) bij de Heer. Deze oude menigte omvat de inwoners van onze hedendaagse steden, de armen die zich bevinden in de marge van het leven, en iedereen die wacht om als dagloner te worden aangenomen (vgl. Mt 20).
Het gemeenschappelijk gebed verzamelt de schreeuw, de hoop, het verlangen naar vrede, genezing, zin en redding, die beleefd worden door de mannen en vrouwen van deze wereld. Het gebed is nooit leeg. Het stijgt onophoudelijk op naar de Heer opdat verdriet verandert in vreugde, wanhoop in blijheid, angst in hoop, eenzaamheid in gemeenschap. En het rijk Gods zal spoedig temidden van de mensen komen.
