列印＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊
1 John 4:7-10
My dear friends,
Let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Those who do not love have not known God, for God is love.
How did the love of God appear among us? God sent his only Son into this world that we might have life through him.
This is love: not that we loved God but that he first loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
Lord,every notion on earth will adore you.
＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊
Mark 6:34-44
As Jesus went ashore he saw a large crowd, and he had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began a long teaching session with them.
It was now getting late, so his disciples came to him and said, “This is a lonely place and it is now late. You should send the people away and let them go to the farms and villages around here to buy themselves something to eat.”
Jesus replied, “You yourselves give them something to eat.” They answered, “If we are to give them food, we must go and buy two hundred silver coins’ worth of bread.” But Jesus said, “You have some loaves: how many? Go and see.” The disciples found out and said, “There are five loaves and two fish.”
Then he told them to have the people sit down together in groups on the green grass. This they did in groups of hundreds and fifties. And Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish and, raising his eyes to heaven, he pronounced a blessing, broke the loaves and handed them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them.
They all ate and everyone had enough. The disciples gathered up what was left and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of bread and fish. Five thousand men had eaten there.
A Dirty God
A hungry crowd. A tired Jesus it has been a long day. The news of the death of John the Baptist would have been weighing heavily on him. Moreover, his disciples needed rest after an arduous missionary journey.
It would have been tempting for Jesus to dismiss the crowd, ask them to go home or find food, and for Jesus and the disciples to retire for the day. But he wouldn’t Feeding the stomach was as important as feeding the soul.
It is easy to preach love. It is hard to put love to work by tending to people’s raw needs. But the Gospel demands it, for Jesus did so. Pope Francis speaks for him: “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets.” This is love: Not that we loved God, but that he first loved and made his hands dirty for us.
The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God;
secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is will.
~ ST. ELIZABETH ANN SETON ~