Tuesday, January 6, 2026

 

Tuesday after Epiphany

(I John 4:7-10; Mark 6:34-44)

Among the bleakest words in English literature come from Shakespeare’s masterpiece King Lear. After being blinded by Lear’s cruel daughters, the Earl of Gloucester laments: "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport".  In today’s first reading John, the Presbyter, looks toward the biblical God in an entirely different way.

The God in whom we believe loves His subjects far and wide.  He gave us His Son so that in bearing hardships with patience, we might be relieved of all suffering.  The Gospel today demonstrates God’s love.  Jesus reveals himself as God by not sending his listeners home hungry.  Rather he feeds them so that they can return home completely satisfied.

Love in Scripture is not simply the well-wishing of the Scholastics.  It is doing something beneficial for others.  It is cleaning out the family dishwasher or visiting the imprisoned.  By such acts we show ourselves as true children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Tuesday after Epiphany

(I John 4:7-10; Mark 6:34-44)

Someone recently posed the word family as an acrostic.  The word is said to mean: Forget about me; I love you. Families are made to teach selfless love – how to make personal sacrifices for the benefit of others.  The first reading today shows how love is especially a characteristic of God’s family.

“God is love,” it says.  In another place John’s First Letter emphasizes that love is not just a word or a feeling.   “Let us not love in word or speech,” its author writes, “but in deed and truth.”  He gives God Himself as the model of love: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”

“Everyone knows this,” we might say.  But we don’t always live it.  We tend to think of ourselves first and then others.  Jesus, as today’s gospel shows, opposes this outlook.  “’Give them some food yourselves,’” he tells his disciples when they want to dismiss the crowds.  He calls us as well to make sacrifices for others’ good.