A reading from the first letter of saint John (4:7-10)
My dear friends,
let us love one other,
since love is from God
and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
No one who fails to love knows God,
because God is love.
In this, the love of God was revealed among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world
that we might have life through him.
Love consists in this:
not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son
as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
This passage returns once more to the theme of love: ‘love is from God (ek tou theou)’, makes Christians ‘children of God’, and allows us to ‘know God’. Indeed, ‘God is love (ho theos agape estin)’. God’s love was made known when God sent the only Son into the world so that we might have life. Love has its origin in God, who sent his Son as ‘an atoning sacrifice (hilasmos)’. The word hilasmos may also be translated as ‘expiation’. It is not to be translated ‘propitiation’, as if God had to be placated by our actions. As in 2:2, where it was translated ‘sacrifice to expiate’, the word suggests God’s way of removing the barrier between God and ourselves erected by our sins. This is brought about by God’s love shown in the actions of the Son: ‘God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’
Psalm 72 (71) The Messiah brings justice and peace.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Mark (6:34-44)
As Jesus stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. By now it was getting late, and his disciples came up to him and said, ‘This is a lonely place and it is getting late; send them away, so that they can go to the farms and villages round about and buy themselves something to eat.’ He replied, ‘Give them something to eat yourselves.’ They answered, ‘Are we to go and buy bread for two hundred denarii 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 instructed them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass, and they sat down on the ground in groups of hundreds and fifties. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and raising his eyes to heaven he blessed and broke the loaves and began handing them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all. They all ate as much as they wanted. They took up twelve basketfuls of the broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
This is the first of two accounts of the feeding of the multitude in the Gospel of Mark. In these final days of Christmas it reminds us of Jesus’ compassion and his concern for those in need, which are the motivation for his coming. Jesus is compared to the shepherd and his feeding of the crowds is both for heart and body. He taught them ‘many things’, and followed this by feeding them so that ‘all ate as much as they wanted’. The Christmas feasts invite us to appreciate the gift of his coming, and the gifts he continues to bring to nourish our lives.
Does Jesus fulfil the hopes and dreams of the prophets and the psalms?
Jesus involves his disciples in feeding the hungry.