January 7, 2026
Wednesday after Epiphany
Lectionary: 214
Reading
1
Beloved, if God so
loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.
This is how we
know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.
Moreover, we have seen and testify
that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.
God is love, and
whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
In this is love brought to perfection among us,
that we have confidence on the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment,
and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.
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 kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
Glory to you, O Christ, proclaimed to the Gentiles.
Glory to you, O Christ, believed in throughout the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
After the five
thousand had eaten and were satisfied,
Jesus made his disciples get into the boat
and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida,
while he dismissed the crowd.
And when he had taken leave of them,
he went off to the mountain to pray.
When it was evening,
the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore.
Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing,
for the wind was against them.
About the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
He meant to pass by them.
But when they saw him walking on the sea,
they thought it was a ghost and cried out.
They had all seen him and were terrified.
But at once he spoke with them,
“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”
He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.
They were completely astounded.
They had not understood the incident of the loaves.
On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010726.cfm
Commentary on 1 John
4:11-18
The reading continues to remind us of the primacy of God’s
love. It begins with a very significant statement:
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to
love one another.
One would expect the writer to have said that, if God loves
us so much, we should love God back—but no. The real test of whether we are
returning God’s love is our passing on that love to our brothers and sisters.
God does not need our love and, in fact, strictly speaking we cannot give to
God something he already has in infinite abundance. That is why we respond by
passing it on.
Part of the reason for that is because “no one has ever seen
God”. This statement is directed against the people called Pneumatikoi (from
the Greek, meaning ‘the spirit people’), who held that a human being could make
direct contact with God simply by intuition. No, God cannot be seen. That means
that it is difficult to measure our real love for him. On the other hand, it is
very easy for us to think that we love him. (Remember the comic strip character
Charlie Brown’s famous remark: “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.”)
But John says that if we can genuinely love the people
around us—who are very visible indeed, sometimes uncomfortably so—then God is
really present in us through that love and it gradually transforms us.
God is also present in us through our faith in and
commitment to Jesus as the Son of God. The reading tells us:
God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, and they abide in God.
Because God is love, those who deeply love:
…abide in God, and God abides in them.
Here again, we have the double theme of this letter: To obey
God is to believe in Jesus as his Son and to love those around us.
Finally, love and fear do not co-exist. When we are filled
with the love of God, a love which flows out from us towards others, there is
nothing we need fear. That is, we have no need to be afraid of God or his
judgement (although there may be things happening in our life which may
generate fear). Fear comes from the threat of punishment, but for the one who
is close to God in love, such fear has no meaning. If I do experience a fear of
God, then it is an indication that my love is defective. (This fear is not to
be confused with ‘fear of the Lord’, one of the gifts of the Spirit. ‘Fear’ in
that sense is rather a sense of awe at God’s infinity, but not the kind of fear
when we come face to face with a life-threatening danger.) If there is no love
in us, then we simply do not know God who, by definition, “is love”.
Repeating what has already been said, our Christian life is
about being loving persons, not primarily about orthodoxy or theological
expertise, or conformity to rules, or making sacrifices, or carrying out
“religious” duties. St Paul put it this way:
…if I…do not have love, I am nothing. (Cor 13:2)
In verses just prior to today’s reading, John says:
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
(1 John 4:8)
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.
Again, John says:
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved
us…
(1 John 4:10)
Our loving acts are only an expression of his love working
in us and through us. Our love is always a response to his, and never the other
way round. The evidence is in God’s sending:
…his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
(1 John 4:10)
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.
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Commentary on Mark
6:45-52
Today’s Gospel follows immediately on yesterday’s account of
the feeding of the 5,000. We are told that Jesus “made” his disciples get into
the boat and precede him to the far side of the lake. Jesus himself sent the
crowd away. The use of the word “made” implies that they did not go very
willingly.
From John’s version of this story we know that the people
were very excited about what had happened and wanted to make Jesus king. One
can imagine that the disciples too were basking in the reflected glory and
popularity of their Master. Jesus would have none of it. He, first of
all, packed off his disciples in the boat, and then sent the crowds away. He
himself retired to the mountains to pray. Was Jesus himself tempted by the
enthusiasm of the crowds? Here was the crowd, literally eating out of his hand.
What a wonderful opportunity to win them over to his Way! But he knows that
that is not the way it is going to happen. He retires to the remoteness of the
mountains and renews his closeness to his Father and his desire to do only his
Father’s will.
In the meantime, a storm had come up on the lake and the
disciples’ boat was being tossed about dangerously. (It is known that sudden
storms are a feature of the Sea of Galilee.) The disciples were in big trouble.
Jesus sees them and comes to them walking on the water, but makes as if to pass
them by. They thought he was a ghost and were even more afraid. Then he spoke
to them:
Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.
As soon as Jesus got into the boat, the wind died down. They
were utterly “astounded”, because, says the Evangelist:
…they did not understand about the loaves, but their
hearts were hardened.
In reading this story we need to go beyond merely a
manifestation of God’s power in Jesus, a power that can even control the
elements. The story has strong symbolic overtones. Here, as elsewhere, the boat
with the disciples on board is a symbol of a Christian community. The sea
surrounding it is the world. Sometimes that world gets very stormy and
seriously threatens the very existence of the community.
Jesus suddenly appears and seems to be passing by. He is
never far away, but he does need to be called. The disciples’ reaction, far
from being comforted, was one of terror. All they saw was a ghost. They did not
believe it could really be him—they thought him far away, still on land.
Then Jesus speaks: “It is I”. Literally, in Greek, ego
eimi, translated, “I AM”—God’s own name—and he tells them to “not be
afraid”. With Jesus, there is never anything to fear, because perfect love
casts out all fear.
As well, as soon as Jesus steps into the boat, there is a
calm. Is the calm just in the sea or is the deeper calm in the hearts of the
disciples, knowing that Jesus is with them? Jesus is the source of true peace.
The disciples are “astounded” because they did not yet
understand what had happened during the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus will bring
this up again with them later on (see Mark 8:17-21). They only saw a miraculous
multiplication; they missed, as probably most of the crowd did, the deeper
meaning of the event as a tangible expression of God’s love and care for his
people. The same care was at work in the boat. And this message is clear for
every Christian community today.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/c0109g/\
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Christmas Time
Opening Prayer
God, light of all nations,
give us the joy of lasting peace
and fill us with your radiance as you filled the hearts of our fathers.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Mark 6: 45-52
And at once he made his
disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side near Bethsaida,
while he himself sent the crowd away. After saying goodbye to them he went off
into the hills to pray.
When evening came, the boat was far out on
the sea, and he was alone on the land. He could see that they were hard pressed
in their rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of
the night, he came towards them, walking on the sea. He was going to pass them
by, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and
cried out; for they had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke
to them and said, 'Courage!
It's me! Don't be afraid.' Then he got into
the boat with them, and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely
dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant;
their minds were closed.
Reflection
•
After the multiplication of the loaves
(yesterday’s Gospel), Jesus ordered the disciples to go into the boat. Why?
Mark does not explain this. The Gospel of John says the following. According to
the hope people had at that time, the Messiah would repeat the gesture of Moses
and would feed the multitude in the desert. This is why, before the
multiplication of the loaves, the people concluded that Jesus must be the
expected Messiah, announced by Moses (cf. Dt 18: 15-18) and they wanted to make
him a King (cfr. Jn 6: 14-15). This decision of the people was a temptation for
Jesus as well as for the disciples. And for this reason, Jesus obliged the
disciples to take the boat and leave. He wanted to avoid that they got
contaminated with the dominating ideology, because the “leaven of Herod and of
the Pharisees was very strong (Mk 8: 15). Jesus himself faces the temptation
through prayer.
•
Mark describes the events with great art. On one
side, Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray. On the other, the disciples go
toward the sea and get into the boat. It almost seems like a symbolical picture
which foreshadows the future: it is as if Jesus went up to Heaven, leaving the
disciples alone in the midst of the contradictions of life, in the fragile boat
of the community. It was night. They are in the high seas, all together in the
small boat, trying to advance, rowing, but the wind was strong and contrary to
them. They were tired. It was night, between three and six o’clock in the
morning. The communities of the time of Mark were like the disciples. In the
night! Contrary wind! They caught no fish, in spite of the efforts made! Jesus
seemed to be absent! But he was present and came close to them, but they, like
the disciples of Emmaus, did not recognize him (Lk 24: 16).
•
At the time of Mark, around the year 70, the
small boat of the communities had to face the contrary wind on the part of some
converted Jews who wished to reduce the mystery of Jesus to the prophecies and
figures of the Old Testament, as well as some converted Pagans who thought it
was possible to have a certain alliance of the faith in Jesus with the empire.
Mark tries to help the Christians to respect the Mystery of Jesus and not to
want to reduce Jesus to their own desires and ideas.
•
Jesus arrives walking on the water of the sea of
life. They scream taken up by fear, because they think that it is a question of
a phantasm. As it happens in the passage of the Disciples of Emmaus, Jesus
pretends that he wants to continue to walk (Lk 24: 28). But they cry out and this causes him to
change the way, he gets close to them and says: “Courage, it is I, do not be
afraid!” Here, once again, for one who knows the story of the Old Testament
this recalls some very important facts: (a) Remember that the people, protected
by God, crossed the Red Sea without fear; (b) Remember, that God calling Moses,
declared his name several times, saying “I am he who is!” (cfr. Ex 3: 15); (c)
Also remember the Book of Isaiah which represents the return from the exile as
a new Exodus, where God appears repeating numerous times: “I am he who is!”
(cfr. Is 42: 8; 43: 5-11-13; 44: 6, 25; 45: 5-7). This way of recalling the Old
Testament, of using the Bible, helped the communities to perceive better the
presence of God in Jesus and in the facts of life. Do not be afraid! • Jesus
goes into the boat and the wind ceased. But the fear of the disciples, instead
of disappearing, increases. Mark, the Evangelist, makes a commentary
criticizing them and says: “They had not understood what the miracle of the
loaves meant, their minds were closed” (6: 52). The affirmation their minds
were closed reminds us of the heart of Pharaoh which was hardened (Ex 7: 3, 13,
22) and of the people in the desert (Ps 95: 8) who did not want to listen to
Moses and thought only of returning to Egypt (Nb 20: 2-10), where there was
plenty of bread and meat to satisfy them (Ex 16: 3).
Personal Questions
•
Night, stormy sea, contrary wind! Have you ever
felt like this? What have you done to overcome it?
•
Have you been afraid so many times because you
have not known how to recognize Jesus present and acting in your life?
Concluding Prayer
He has pity on the weak and the needy and
saves the needy from death. From oppression and violence, he redeems their
lives, their blood is precious in his sight. (Ps 72: 13-14)
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