http://www.easterbrooks.com/cgi-bin/Cathcal.cgi?20050104s

First Reading: First John 4:7-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8
Gospel: Mark 6:34-44

First Reading: First John 4:7-10

7

¹ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

8

Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.

9

In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.

10

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

Table of Contents 1 John 4

Footnotes

¹ [7-12] Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God's very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God's love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can "see" the invisible God.

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8

1

Of Solomon.

2

^{1 2} O God, give your judgment to the king; your justice to the son of kings; That he may govern your people with justice, your oppressed with right judgment,

3

That the mountains may yield their bounty for the people, and the hills great abundance,

4

That he may defend the oppressed among the people, save the poor and crush the oppressor.

7

That abundance may flourish in his days, great bounty, till the moon be no more.

8

³ May he rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

Table of Contents Psalms 72

Footnotes

¹ [Psalm 72] A royal psalm in which the Israelite king, as the representative of God, is the instrument of divine justice (Psalm 72:1-4, 12-14) and blessing (Psalm 72:5-7, 15-17) for the whole world. The king is human, giving only what he has received from God. Hence intercession must be made for him. The extravagant language is typical of oriental royal courts.

² [2] The king . . . the son of kings: the crown prince is the king's son; the prayer envisages the dynasty.

³ [8] From sea to sea . . . the ends of the earth: the boundaries of the civilized world known at the time: from the Mediterranean Sea (the western sea) to the Persian Gulf (the eastern sea), and from the Euphrates (the river) to the islands and lands of southwestern Europe, "the ends of the earth." The words may also have a mythic nuance--the earth surrounded by cosmic waters, hence everywhere.

Gospel: Mark 6:34-44

34

When he disembarked and 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.

35

¹ By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already very late.

36

Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat."

37

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?"

38

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."

39

So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.

40

² The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.

41

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. ³

42

They all ate and were satisfied.

43

And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish.

44

Those who ate (of the loaves) were five thousand men.

Table of Contents Mark 6

Footnotes

¹ [35] See the note on Matthew 14:13-21. Compare this section with Mark 8:1-9. The various accounts of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, two each in Mark and in Matthew and one each in Luke and in John, indicate the wide interest of the early church in their eucharistic gatherings; see, e.g., Mark 6:41; 8:6; 14:22; and recall also the sign of bread in Exodus 16; Deut 8:3-16; Psalm 78:24-25; 105:40; Wisdom 16:20-21.

² [40] The people . . . in rows by hundreds and by fifties: reminiscent of the groupings of Israelites encamped in the desert (Exodus 18:21-25) and of the wilderness tradition of the prophets depicting the transformation of the wasteland into pastures where the true shepherd feeds his flock (Ezekiel 34:25-26) and makes his people beneficiaries of messianic grace.

³ [41] On the language of this verse as eucharistic (cf Mark 14:22), see the notes on Matthew 14:19, 20. Jesus observed the Jewish table ritual of blessing God before partaking of food.