JANUARY 5
510B SAINT JOHN NEUMANN, BISHOP MEMORIAL
Selections taken from Universalis (also used January 8th)
Reading 1
1 Jn 4:7-10
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
Responsorial Psalm
72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Gospel
Mk 6:34-44
When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He said to them in reply,
“Give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples
to set before the people;
he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading 1 John 4:7 – 10
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 71(72):1-4,7-8
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
May the mountains bring forth peace for the people
and the hills, justice.
May he defend the poor of the people
and save the children of the needy.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
In his days justice shall flourish
and peace till the moon fails.
He shall rule from sea to sea,
from the Great River to earth’s bounds.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
Gospel Mark 6:34 – 44
So as Jesus stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length. By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place and it is getting very late, So send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat’. He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves’. They answered, ‘Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?’ How many loaves have you?’ he asked ‘Go and see.’ And when they had found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish’. Then he ordered them to get all the people together in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Tuesday After Epiphany
From: 1 John 4:7-10
God is Love. Brotherly Love, the Mark of Christians
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[7] Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
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Commentary:
7-21. St John now expands on the second aspect of the divine commandment (cf. 1 Jn 3:23) -- brotherly love. The argument is along these lines: God is love and it was he who loved us to begin with (vv. 7-10); brotherly love is the response which God's love calls for (vv. 11-16); when our love is perfect, we feel no fear (vv. 17-18); brotherly love is an expression of love of God (vv. 19-21).
This is not tiresome repetition of the ideas already discussed (2:7-11; 3:11-18): contrary to the false teaching which is beginning to be spread, charity is the sure mark, the way to recognize the genuine disciple. St Jerome hands down a tradition concerning the last years of St John's life: when he was already a very old man, he used always say the same thing to the faithful: "My children, love one another!" On one occasion, he was asked why he insisted on this: "to which he replied with these words worthy of John: 'Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if you keep just this commandment, it will suffice"' ("Comm. in Gal.", Ill. 6, 10).
7. The divine attributes, God's perfections, which he has to the highest degree, are the cause of our virtues: for example, because God is holy, we have been given a capacity to be holy. Similarly, because God is love, we can love. True love, true charity, comes from God.
8. "God is love": without being strictly speaking a definition (in 1:5 he says "God is light"), this statement reveals to us one of the most consoling attributes of God: "Even if nothing more were to be said in praise of love in all the pages of this epistle", St Augustine explains, "even if nothing more were to be said in all the pages of Sacred Scripture, and all we heard from the mouth of the Holy Spirit were that 'God is love', there would be nothing else we would need to look for" ("In EpistIoann. ad Parthos", 7, 5).
God's love for men was revealed in Creation and in the preternatural and supernatural gifts he gave man prior to sin; after man's sin, God' s love is to be seen above all, in forgiveness and redemption (as St John goes on to say: v. 9), for the work of salvation is the product of God's mercy: "It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which 'God so loved...that he gave his only Son' (Jn 3:16), that God, who 'is love' (1 Jn 4:8), cannot reveal himself other than as mercy. This corresponds not only to the most profound truth of that love which God is, but also to the whole interior truth of man and of the world which is man's temporary homeland" (John Paul II, "Dives In Misercordia", 13).
9. God has revealed his love to men by sending his own Son; that is, it is not only Christ's teachings which speak to us of God's love, but, above all, his presence among us: Christ himself is the fullness of revelation of God (cf. Jn 1:18; Heb 1:1) and of his love for men. "The source of all grace is God's love for us, and he has revealed this not just in words but also in deeds. It was divine love which led the second Person of the most holy Trinity, the Word, the son of God the Father, to take on our flesh, our human condition, everything except sin. And the Word, the Word of God, is the Word from which Love proceeds (cf. "Summa Theologiae", I, q. 43, a. 5, quoting St Augustine, "De Trinitate", IX, 10).
"Love is revealed to us in the incarnation, the redemptive journey which Jesus Christ made on our earth, culminating in the supreme sacrifice of the cross. And on the cross it showed itself through a new sign: 'One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water' (Jn 19:34). This water and blood of Jesus speaks to us of a self-sacrifice brought to the last extreme: 'It is finished' (Jn 19:30) -- everything is achieved, for the sake of love" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 162).
"Among us": it is difficult to convey in English everything the Greek contains. The Greek expression means that the love of God was shown to those who witnessed our Lord's life (the Apostles) and to all other Christians, whose participate in this apostolic witness (cf. note on 1 Jn 1:1-3; this idea is repeated in vv. 14 and 16). But it also means "within us", inside us, in our hearts, insofar as we partake of God's own life by means of sanctifying grace: every Christian is a witness to the fact that Christ has come so that men "may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).
10. Given that love is an attribute of God (v. 8), men have a capacity to love inso far as they share in God's qualities. So, the initiative always lies with God.
When explaining in what love consists, St John points to its highest form of expression: "he sent (his Son) to be the expiation of our sins" (cf. 2:2). Similar turns of phrase occur throughout the letter: the Son of God manifested himself "to destroy the works of the devil" (3:8); "he laid down his life for us" (3:16). All these statements show that: 1) Christ's death is a sacrifice in the strict sense of the word, the most sublime act of recognition of God's sovereignty; 2) it is an atoning sacrifice, because it obtains God's pardon for the sins of men; 3) it is the supreme act of God's love, so much so that St John actually says, "in this is love."
What is amazing, St Alphonsus teaches, "is that he could have saved us without suffering or dying and yet he chose a life of toil and humiliation, and a bitter and ignominious death, even death on a cross, something reserved for the very worst offenders. And why was it that, when he could have redeemed us without suffering, he chose to embrace death on the Cross? To show us how much he loved us" ("The Love of Jesus Christ", chap. 1).
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From: Mark 6:34-44
First Miracles of the Loaves
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[34] As he (Jesus) landed he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. [35] And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a lonely place, and the hour is now late; [36] send them away, to go into the country and villages round about and buy themselves something to eat." [37] But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." And they said to him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?" [38] And he said to them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." And when they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish." [39] Then he commanded them all to sit down by companies upon the green grass. [40] So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. [41] And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. [42] And they all ate and were satisfied. [43] And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. [44] And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
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Commentary:
34. Our Lord had planned a period of rest, for himself and his disciples, from the pressures of the apostolate (Mk 6:31-32). And he has to change his plans because so many people come, eager to hear him speak. Not only is he not annoyed with them: he feels compassion on seeing their spiritual need. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos 4:6). They need instruction and our Lord wants to meet this need by preaching to them. "Jesus is moved by hunger and sorrow, but what moves him most is ignorance" (St. J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 109).
37. A denarius was what an artisan earned for a normal day's work. The disciples must, therefore, have thought it little less than impossible to fulfill the Master's command, because they would not have had this much money.
41. This miracle is a figure of the Holy Eucharist: Christ performed it shortly before promising that sacrament (cf. Jn 6:1ff), and the Fathers have always so interpreted it. In this miracle Jesus shows his supernatural power and his love for men -- the same power and love as make it possible for Christ's one and only body to be present in the eucharistic species to nourish the faithful down the centuries. In the words of the sequence composed by St Thomas Aquinas for the Mass of Corpus Christi : "Sumit unus, sumunt mille, quantum isti, tantum ille, nec sumptus consumitur" (Be one or be a thousand fed, they eat alike that living bread which, still received, ne'er wastes away).
This gesture of our Lord-looking up to heaven -- is recalled in the Roman canon of the Mass : "Et elevatis oculis in caelum, ad Te Deum Patrem suum omnipotentem"(and looking up to heaven, to you, his almighty Father). At this point in the Mass we are preparing to be present at a miracle greater than that of the multiplication of the loaves -- the changing of bread into his own body, offered as food for men.
42. Christ wanted the left-overs to be collected (cf. Jn 6:12) to teach us not to waste things God gives us, and also to have them as a tangible proof of the miracle.
The collecting of the left-overs is a way of showing us the value of little things done out of love for God -- orderliness, cleanliness, finishing things completely. It also reminds the sensitive believer of the extreme care that must be taken of the eucharistic species. Also, the generous scale of the miracle is an expression of the largesse of the messianic times. The Fathers recall that Moses distributed the manna for each to eat as much as he needed but some left part of it for the next day and it bred worms (Ex 16:16-20). Elijah gave the widow just enough to meet her needs (1 Kings 17:13-16). Jesus, on the other hand, gives enerously and abundantly.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase he Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
