Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious
I have sometimes struggled with how to talk about the gospel message of Christianity with non-believers. In presenting Christianity to others I find that what often comes up in conversation is the commonly repeated “God is love.” This is undoubtedly a true statement; yet by now it has become trite, and by itself it is not very informative or helpful by itself at expressing what Christians believe to be the case about God. What does it mean to say that God is love? How is God love? The answer to these questions is contained in the first reading in the lectionary for today: we understand God’s love through God’s gift of himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
The gospel for today follows up on the first reading by providing a glimpse of God’s love as expressed in Jesus Christ. The text is the familiar feeding of the five thousand. The passage reveals Jesus’ concern for the needs of people. It says that Jesus’ first motive to feed the crowd was “pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6: 34). In response he begins to teach them – presumably about spiritual and/or moral truths. But he is also concerned about the physical needs of these people. He responds to their physical hunger by offering them food to eat in the form of fish and loaves of bread.
The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand also points toward something beyond itself which is more significant. It is a pre-figuration of the Eucharistic meal in which God feeds his people with the body and blood of Jesus our Lord. Jesus here first gives thanks to God before breaking the loaves of bread and the fish. Then he distributes this food to the people. This is a meal which is open to everyone who is drawn to him. And once everyone has had their fill there were twelve baskets of food left over. The meal may also look backwards to God’s feeding of the people of Israel by manna in the desert (Exodus 16).
In the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus shows his love for the people and his concern for their physical and spiritual needs. It also shows him giving of himself in order to meet those needs. 1 John 4 points out that Jesus in fact went beyond this to suffer and die for the sins of human beings. In fulfilling his role as savior of human beings, Jesus demonstrates immense – even infinite – love which can only be an attribute of God. Yet, as followers of Christ we are expected to strive to emulate his love for God and for other human beings.
In the beginning of this New Year we have the opportunity to reflect on what it means to say that God is love. As the writer of 1 John points out, recognizing that God is love requires a response from us. The proper response to this love is to love others in a way that strives to mirror the way that we are loved by God.
-Joel Schickel