I’m In Love | January 5, 2016

January 5, 2016

Today we learn two things that we already know about God: He is Love and He takes pity on us. Yay! The first reading from 1 John is the classic, tried and true, the Words like a beautiful symphony translate into every tongue, across boundaries, piercing divides of religion, culture, and race: GOD IS LOVE. If I were stranded on a desert island and could only keep one sentence, I would choose this sentence because it covers all. Therefore, because God is Love and He is in absolutely every living thing, we are Love. Strip everything away and love remains. When we love we share God with one another whether we acknowledge His existence or not, Love is God and we live in Love. Period. So the deal with Love/God is that we can and do reject it, we can and do misinterpret it, we can and do miss it sometimes when it is right in front of us, we can and do use it the wrong way. Just because it seems like a very simple and straightforward concept, “God is Love” is #complicated #mysterious #thestruggle often times. How do we figure it out? Henry David Thoreau says, “The only remedy for love is to love more.” Love is a verb/God is a verb and we must act in Love/act in God. This can only happen through a strong, rich, and steady prayer life. Easier said than done, but it is a new year, so let’s commit ourselves to prayer so that we can be in love.

The gospel is the beautiful story of the loaves and fishes. We had a cereal for dinner party at youth group this past Sunday, and while everyone brought their own box of cereal, the night resembled a loaves and fishes kind of scene. People were sharing their favorite cereal with each other, passing the limited supply of milk from table to table, there were definite scraps EVERYWHERE, kids bonded over their Lucky Charms and stories of never being allowed to eat sugar cereals at home, laughter ensued, surprises at the bottom of the box were discovered, and everyone had their fill. As I scanned the room I realized that each and every one of the 150 or so teens has a different love song in their heart, a unique way of praying, an individual purpose in life, a certain set of gifts that only they have, a solo mission, a single set of problems, and an exceptional story of their own. I suddenly became overwhelmed with the thought, “How can I minister to all of them? There are too many. I can’t possibly connect with each one of them. I am inadequate.”

Today’s gospel begins with Jesus also scanning the crowd, except there were over 5,000 individuals in his youth group, all with their own walk, their own story, their own doubts, their own calling. What was his first act in that situation? “He took pity on them”…..Ah, MERCY! Mercy is the beginning of Love. Mercy is Love manifested into action. Mercy is the heart of God.

Not even Jesus could physically serve the 5,000 so he commissioned his team to be his hands and feet. Community is so important and when we work together the burden becomes light. That is exactly what happened at youth group. My team who know me, Love me, and understand me dispersed among the crowd and they shared Love with a small group of individuals. The apostles did the same knowing, Loving, and understanding Jesus better than others, they went out and Loved the gospel into people’s hearts. The apostles fed the masses in today’s gospel with what they already had in their possession. That is all God needs from us to work miracles; we just need to give him what we have.

Love and Mercy are the heart and soul of God. Share them lavishly today. 

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 PS 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.

Alleluia LK 4:18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor
and to proclaim liberty to captives.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

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.