January 6, 2026
Tuesday after Epiphany
Lectionary: 213
Reading
1
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
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
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
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.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010626.cfm
Commentary on 1 John
4:7-10
We move today into the third part of 1 John called ‘The
Source of Love and Faith’. It is divided into two parts: the first deals at
length with ‘love’ (4:7—5:4); the second is about ‘faith’ (5:5-13). Today John
emphasises that the initiative for love comes from God and not from us. God
does not love us because we love or obey him.
The word ‘love’ (Greek, agape) in its various
forms occurs 43 times altogether in this letter. It is used no less than 32
times in the passages that begin today through verse 3 of chapter 5!
‘Love’ is one of the most used (and abused) words in our
language. Our music lyrics use it all the time and there have likely been songs
about love since the dawn of music. We use it in all kinds of other contexts
too. People ‘love’ chocolate or they ‘love’ spending hours watching football on
TV. People are ‘in love’ and they ‘make love’. And so on.
What, then, do we mean by love in our reading today? CS
Lewis, the Christian writer, wrote a book called The Four Loves.
There he describes four kinds, all of which should be part of Christian living.
One of these is agape, the form of love that 1 John is talking
about. A definition of agape that captures its essence is: “a
passionate desire for the well-being of the other”.
This is the love that God unconditionally extends to all his
creatures without exception. It is the love that each of us, too, is to extend
to every one of our brothers and sisters—again, without a single exception. It
is an outreaching love, an unconditional love. It does not depend on mood,
liking or disliking. It is based purely and simply on the need and on the good
of the other. It may or may not be expressed sexually, but it is definitely not
the love (eros) that most of the pop songs are talking about.
No matter what we do, no matter how evil or vicious we are,
God’s love for us remains unchanging and unchangeable. The old hymn (Love it
was that Made Us) says it this way:
Love it was that made us and Love it was that saved us…
The reason is simple—God is love.
Love enters into his very being. God cannot not love—if
he did, he would not be God.
It is strange to say (and for some it may be shocking), but
God loves the most depraved person we could imagine and Our Lady or one of the
saints in exactly the same way. He cannot do otherwise. Is there no difference
then?
The difference between Our Lady and the evil person is not
in God’s love for them, but in their response to the love
offered to them. One person has a closed heart, while Our Lady, from the moment
of the Annunciation, gave an unconditional ‘Yes’ which she never withdrew.
All our loving, then, is simply an opening of our heart, a
return of the love that God has first shown us. When we reveal ourselves as
loving persons, it is because God’s love is working in us and through us. The
sign that we are loving him is also that we are filled with love ourselves,
love which originally came from him.
As someone once said, God’s love is like electricity. God’s
love is only in us when it is passing through us. It can never stop with ourselves.
If we keep that love to ourselves, it dies.
The question then is not: Does God love the drug pusher? (He
does.) The question is: Does the drug pusher love his brother? (If he does, he
is certainly going about it in a strange way.) Anyone who is a deeply loving
person to those around him is already full of God’s love. God’s love never
changes, but it can be blocked by a closed heart.
God’s love is available in abundance to anyone who opens his
or her heart to him. May I be able to do that. But that love, too, must
continue to flow out beyond me to everyone I meet. It is impossible to separate
God’s love for me and my love for others. We cannot have one without the other.
Our Christian life, then, is about being loving persons, not
primarily about orthodoxy or theological expertise, or conformity to rules, or
making sacrifices, or carrying out “religious” duties. As St Paul says in his
famous passage in the first letter to the Corinthians:
…if I…do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Cor
13:2)
Today’s reading says:
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
If I am not a loving person, all the rest is a waste. If I
am a truly loving person, everything else is taken care of. And what is the
source of that love? It is not ourselves says John, but rather:
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved
us…
The evidence is that God:
…sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus hanging on the cross is the most dramatic sign of
God’s love for us, a love that is totally gratuitous (so we call it ‘grace’)
and never earned by any action of ours. Let me today look at Jesus on the
Cross, say a big ‘Thank you’ to him and then go and pass on his love for me to
everyone I meet.
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Commentary on Mark
6:34-44
Just before today’s passage begins we are told that the
Twelve had just returned from the mission on which Jesus had sent them. He suggested
that they all go to a secluded spot where they could rest. So they set off
there in one of their boats. (In spite of what we are told in Mark 1:18 and 20
about their leaving their boats to follow Jesus, we still see them in use.)
However, the crowds spotted them and large numbers ran along the shore. As
such, by the time Jesus and his companions had reached their destination, they
were faced with a huge crowd. Perhaps the disciples were very disappointed to
see their day of rest so badly disrupted. Jesus, on the other hand, was filled
with compassion as he looked over the crowd. He saw them as people lost and
confused; they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus, of course, is their
Shepherd. He began by teaching them many things, helping to bring clarity and
understanding into their scattered lives.
As evening began to draw in, the disciples approached Jesus
and urged him to let the people go to the surrounding villages and towns where
they could get something to eat. Did they say this because they really felt for
the people’s needs or because they wanted to be left alone? Jesus replied by
telling his disciples:
You give them something to eat.
His disciples remonstrated:
Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread
and give it to them to eat?
It would require a large amount of money to give everyone
even a little to eat.
Then Jesus told them:
How many loaves have you? Go and see.
They found that there were just five loaves and two fish—for
Jesus that was enough. The people were told to sit down in rows on the green
grass. The scene recalls Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd
[Jesus saw the crowd as sheep without a shepherd];
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures…
[the people sat in rows on the green grass];
You prepare a table before me…
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life…
The scene is also reminiscent of the Israelites encamped in
groups in the desert (Exod 19:1-2) and the prophets speaking about the
transformation of the desert into pastures where the true shepherd feeds his
flock (see Is 35).
After the crowd was seated, Jesus:
Taking the five loaves and the two fish…looked up to heaven [to
his Father] and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his
disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all.
And all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of broken
pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand
men.
The whole passage has strong Eucharistic overtones. There is
what we would now call the Liturgy of the Word, when Jesus taught the people at
length, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, when the bread was blessed, broken
and distributed to the people in groups or communities. The amount left over
points to the huge generosity of God in taking care of his children.
It is worth noting that Jesus does not distribute the bread
and fish himself, but delegates his disciples to do this. And that is how Jesus
comes into people’s lives today—through the agency of his dedicated followers.
It is also significant that the feeding of the 5,000 is the
only miracle of Jesus which appears in all four Gospels. It can be understood
on many levels. It looks backward to the feeding of Israel with manna in the
desert during the Exodus (Ex 16). It was expected in some circles that this
would be repeated in the messianic age—as in fact happens here. It may also
point to the prophet Elisha’s feeding 100 men with just 20 loaves of bread, an
action met with the same scepticism as the disciples showed, but in this case
too, there was some left over (2 Kgs 4:42-44).
Altogether in the Gospels there are two multiplication
stories in Mark and Matthew and one each in Luke and John. This is taken as an
indication of the importance of eucharistic gatherings in the early Church.
But the story essentially points beyond the Eucharist to
what it signifies. The breaking of the bread and its being shared out among all
present is intended as a sign or symbol of the life of the Christian community,
where all the resources of the community are shared and divided in such a way
that no one is in need. And this way of life is also to be fostered in the wider
community.
It is a story about the love of God for his people and how
he takes care of them, but that love is shown in practice by his people’s
passing on that love, especially to those in need. If that does not happen,
then the Eucharist becomes a sign of nothing. It is simply reduced to an
abstract ritual.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/c0108g/
Tuesday, January 6,
2026
Christmas Time
Opening Prayer
Father, your Son became like us
when he revealed himself in our
nature; help us to become more like him, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Mark 6: 34-44
So as he 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?' He asked, 'How many loaves have you?
Go and see.' And when they had found out they said, 'Five, and two fish.' Then
he ordered them to get all the people to sit down 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 began handing them to his disciples to
distribute among the people. He also shared
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.
Reflection
•
It is always good to look at the context in
which the text of the Gospel is found, because it enlightens us in order to
discover better the sense of it. A bit before (Mk 6: 17-19), Mark narrates the
banquet of death, organized by Herod with the great persons of Galilee, in the
Palace of the Capital city, during which John the Baptist was killed. In
today’s text, he describes the banquet of life, promoted by Jesus with the
hungry crowds of Galilee, there in the desert. The contrast of this context is
great and enlightens the text.
•
In Mark’s Gospel, the multiplication of the
loaves is very important. It is mentioned twice: here and in Mk 8: 1-9. And
Jesus himself questions the disciples on the multiplication of the loaves (Mk
8: 14-21). This is why it is worthwhile to observe and to reflect up to the
point of discovering in what the importance of the multiplication of the loaves
consists of. • Jesus had invited the
disciples to rest a bit in a place in the desert (Mk 6: 31). The crowds
perceived that Jesus had gone to the other side of the lake, and they followed
him and arrived there before he did (Mk 6: 33). When Jesus, getting down from
the boat, sees that large crowd waiting for him, he becomes sad “because they
were like sheep without a shepherd.” This phrase recalls the Psalm of the Good
Shepherd (Ps 23). Before the people without a shepherd, Jesus forgets to rest
and begins to teach, he begins to be a Shepherd. With his words he orientates
and guides the crowds in the desert of life; and in this way the crowd could
sing: “The Lord is my Shepherd! There is nothing I shall want!” (Ps 23: 1).
•
Time went by and it began to be late and dark. The
disciples were concerned and asked Jesus to send the people away. They affirm
that there in the desert it is not possible to find anything to eat for so many
people. Jesus says: “You, yourselves give them to eat!” But they were afraid:
“Do you want us to go and buy bread for 200 denarius?”
(that is, the salary of 200 days!). The disciples seek a solution outside the
crowds and for the crowds. Jesus does not seek the solution outside, but rather
within the crowd and for the crowd and he asks: “How many loaves do you have?
Go and see.” The answer is: “Five loaves and two fish!” It is very little for
so many people! Jesus orders the crowd to sit down in groups and asks the
disciples to distribute the bread and the fish. Everybody ate enough to be
satisfied!
•
It is important to observe how Mark describes
this fact: Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to
Heaven, pronounced the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to the disciples
to distribute it.” This way of speaking makes the communities think about what?
No doubt, this made them think about the Eucharist. Because these same words
will be used (even now) in the celebration of the Supper of the Lord. Thus,
Mark suggests that the Eucharist has to lead us to share. It is the Bread of Life
which gives us courage and leads us to face the problems of people in a
different way, not from outside, but from inside.
•
In the way of describing the facts, Mark recalls
the Bible in order to enlighten the sense of the facts. To feed the hungry
crowds in the desert, Moses was the first one to do it (cfr. Ex 16: 1-36). And
to ask the people to organize themselves and sit down in groups of 50 or 100
reminds us of the census of the People in the desert after they left Egypt
(cfr. Nb 1-4). In this way, Mark suggests that Jesus is the new Messiah. The
people of the communities knew the Old Testament, and for one who understands
well, few words suffice. In this way they discovered the mystery which
surrounded the person of Jesus.
Personal Questions
•
Jesus forgets to rest in order to serve the
people. Which is the message which I discover for myself?
•
If today we would share what we have, there
would be no hunger in the world.
What can I do?
Concluding Prayer
In his days uprightness shall flourish, and
peace in plenty till the moon is no more. His empire shall stretch from sea to
sea, from the river to the limits of the earth. (Ps 72: 7-8)
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