Thursday After Epiphany

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Christmas Weekday

1 Jn 4:19—5:4/Lk 4:14-22a (Lectionary #215)

 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010925.cfm

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The Responsorial Psalm persists with the Epiphany theme, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.” IJohn 4:19 to 5:4 concludes from this that we have to love the people of “every nation on earth.”

John argues, “Everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him.” This includes Jesus and all who have become “children of God” through belief in him. Therefore “those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also,” all who are God’s children by grace.

It is only a logical extension of this to say that therefore we must also love all those to whom Jesus was sent; that is, “every nation on earth.” Those who love God love those whom God loves, which includes all those to whom he sent his only-begotten Son. All.

Oddly enough, we sometimes have the most difficulty loving those who are close to us: people we grew up with, people we live and work with.

This is because we lose the sense of the mystery that is in them. Because our dealings with them are so commonplace, we begin to think of them as commonplace also. We take each other for granted.

This happened to the people in Jesus’ hometown. Luke 4: 14-22 leaves out the end of the story, which was that after “all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth,” they began to ask each other, “Is not this Joseph's son?” (end of verse 22). And from then on it was all downhill — literally, because “They got up, drove Jesus out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.” They just couldn’t accept divinity in a hometown boy.

Those who watched Jesus grow up, taking it for granted he was “the son of Joseph,” simply could not accept him as the Son of God. And we who deal with each other constantly as ordinary human beings find it hard to accept each other as children of God and as the body of Christ himself, who have “become Christ” by Baptism. We need to keep reminding ourselves to see and believe in the mystery of their being and ours.

Jesus “came and proclaimed peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17). That means we have to love equally those of “every nation on earth,” including our own. The background of all our dealings with each other should be, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.”

Initiative: If you want to know Jesus, accept him as universal Savior. See others as God does. Recognize the mystery of God’s presence and call in each one.

Wednesday After Epiphany

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Christmas Weekday

1 Jn 4:11-18/Mk 6:45-52 (Lectionary #214)

 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010825.cfm

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The Responsorial Psalm tells us, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you” (Psalm 72) as a support for hope that motivates us to love.

1John 4: 11-18 tells us that if we show love to one another, we will grow in love, and God’s love will be “brought to perfection in us.” What is the sign this is happening?

The way we know we are truly in union with Christ is that “he has given us his Spirit.” If we think like Christ and love like Christ, we must be alive by the Spirit of Christ.

To love is to help others be and become all they can be. But Christ’s Spirit tells us “the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.” “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.” So what holds us back from the loving act of sharing him with every person we deal with?

Fear. We are afraid of failure. We think either that people are impervious to religion or that we are inadequate to present it; that even if we are discreet in our way of embodying and expressing the Good News about Jesus, they will not respond.

Mark 6: 45-52 reminds us that the apostles felt this way in the early Church. Jesus had ascended into heaven (“gone up the mountain”) and left them alone to take care of his people. The “wind was against them.” They were being “tossed about” in stormy seas of controversy and persecution. They were scared. And when “Jesus came toward them, walking on the sea,” they “thought he was a ghost…. and were terrified.” When he got into the boat and “the wind died down,” they were “completely astounded.” They just didn’t get it.

The problem was, “they had not understood the incident of the loaves.” They did not understand that when Jesus took the loaves, “looked up to heaven, blessed, broke, and gave them to his disciples…” this was a preview of Eucharist.

There is a mix of timeframes here. When Jesus multiplied the loaves, neither Eucharist nor the Church was yet established, and the apostles had no responsibilities. But the story is a commentary on the present. It tells us that if we understand Eucharist, we understand that Jesus is always with us, always in the boat, and no contrary winds of culture or contradiction can keep us from bringing “every nation on earth” to adore him. If we have faith to believe this, hope that overcomes fear, and love to keep trying, then through our efforts to give Christ to the world, we will see his love being “brought to perfection among us.”

Initiative: If you want to know Jesus, accept him as universal Savior. Keep trying to bring people to him, asking him to work with you, in you, through you.

Tuesday After Epiphany

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Christmas Weekday

Saint Raymond of Penafort, Priest

1 Jn 4:7-10/Mk 6:34-44 (Lectionary #213)

 https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010725.cfm

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The Responsorial Psalm foretells, “Lord, every nation on earth will adore you” (Psalm 72). Picture it.

Adoration is total, all-unifying response to the overwhelming truth and beauty of God. Before the infinite Being of God, in whom all truth, all goodness are One, we ourselves are reduced to one act. There is nothing to say, nothing to do, nothing to add. All is before us. We simply condense ourselves into one silent, wordless word of affirmation. In our silence we become a single word expressed, a word for which there is no word. All that we are becomes eloquent in silence. There is no other way to recognize the full Being of God.

When “every nation on earth adores Him,” there will be no divisions between us, because we will all be focused just on what God is; not on what any one of us is not. The only goodness we will be aware of is God’s and our participation in it, and we will adore it in God and in one another. Outside of God — and of God’s beauty as found in the unique diversity of every person and culture — we will pay attention to nothing at all, because there will be nothing else. Everything good and true and beautiful — all that truly is — will be present in God. And in everything and everyone that is we will see God’s truth, God’s goodness and beauty shining through the distinct life and characteristics of every being God has made.

1John 4: 7-10 tells us love is like adoration in this, that it silences everything within us that is not of God, and focuses only on what is of God in one another. True love does not blind us to the faults in one another, but they cease to be the focus. They are just the background out of which each one’s truth and beauty shine. “Let us love one another, because love is of God; and everyone who loves… knows God.”

On this earth our whole being cannot remain rapt and unified in one, silent act of adoration. We are here to grow and develop through interaction with all of creation. We have work to do, and we have to focus on many things that can distract us from the pure truth and goodness of God. So Mark 6: 34-44 teaches us that active love can be the unifying focus in our lives. To see good, do love. Jesus was “moved with pity” for the crowds. He taught them, told his disciples to feed them, and made their eating a sign of Eucharist, where he assembles people to nourish them with himself as, by sharing themselves with each other, they share in his own act of giving life to the world. The unifying factor is nurturing love.

The lesson? To be love, do love.

Initiative: If you want to know Jesus, accept him as universal Savior. Let love be your eyes. Focus on God’s truth and goodness in everyone. And share.