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
Genesis 23,1-4.19; 24,1-8.62-67
The length of Sarah's life was a hundred and twenty-seven years. She died at Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- in the land of Canaan, and Abraham proceeded to mourn and bewail her. Then rising from beside his dead, Abraham spoke to the Hittites, 'I am a stranger resident here,' he said. 'Let me have a burial site of my own here, so that I can remove my dead for burial.' And after this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre -- now Hebron -- in the land of Canaan. By now Abraham was an old man, well on in years, and Yahweh had blessed Abraham in every way. Abraham said to the senior servant in his household, the steward of all his property, 'Place your hand under my thigh: I am going to make you swear by Yahweh, God of heaven and God of earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live but will go to my native land and my own kinsfolk to choose a wife for my son Isaac.' The servant asked him, 'What if the girl does not want to follow me to this country? Should I then take your son back to the country from which you come?' Abraham replied, 'On no account are you to take my son back there. Yahweh, God of heaven and God of earth, who took me from my father's home, and from the land of my kinsfolk, and who promised me on oath, "I shall give this country to your descendants"-he will now send his angel ahead of you, so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If then the girl refuses to follow you, you will be quit of this oath to me. Only do not take my son back there.' Isaac meanwhile had come back from the well of Lahai Roi and was living in the Negeb. While Isaac was out walking towards evening in the fields, he looked up and saw camels approaching. And Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac. She jumped down from her camel, and asked the servant, 'Who is that man walking through the fields towards us?' The servant replied, 'That is my master.' So she took her veil and covered herself up. The servant told Isaac the whole story. Then Isaac took her into his tent. He married Rebekah and made her his wife. And in his love for her, Isaac was consoled for the loss of his mother.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Genesis' stories unfold as family stories that become people, a people united around an offspring blessed by God. Fathers and mothers are the threads that weave with divine words that become life. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah. At the beginning, Abraham reiterates his condition of "stranger," or perhaps better to say "immigrant." This is reminiscent of the permanent condition of Israel's origins, which is common to the patriarchs and Moses: not having a stable abode, living as pilgrims, as strangers in a land that is God's gift and therefore not an absolute possession, that land that man must "cultivate and guard" and not so much dominate. Such condition gives all existence a provisional sense and points to that freedom from possession so little practised. This is why Abraham is forced to buy a small piece of land in order to bury Sarah. It is a sign of his precariousness and condition, but also of that freedom to recognise that land and descendants are a gift from the Lord, that he is not the author and owner of what has been given to him. The vicissitudes of the patriarchs and then that of Israel will be a continuous return to this memory of the origins, as we read in the book of Deuteronomy: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous" (26:5). This memory also applies to us Christians and becomes the foundation of our inclusive universality.
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
