Holy Gospel. Tuesday, 06 January. First Letter of John 4:7-10. 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 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. Psalms 72(71):1-2.3-4.7-8. O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the kings son; He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment. 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. 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. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:34-44. 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. Commentary of the day Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church Spiritual Canticle, 2nd redaction (copyright Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1991) It was already very late...They all ate and were satisfied My Beloved, the tranquil night at the time of the rising dawn, silent music, sounding solitude, the supper that refreshes, and deepens love. It should be known that in divine Scripture this term supper refers to the divine vision. Just as supper comes at the end of a days work and the beginning of evening rest, this tranquil knowledge causes the soul to experience a certain end of her evils and the possession of good things in which her love of God is deepened more than before. As a result, he is the supper that refreshes by being the end of evils for her, and deepens love by being to her the possession of all goods. Yet for a better understanding of what this supper is to the soul - it is, as we said, her Beloved - we should note in this appropriate place what the beloved Bridegroom says in the Apocalypse: “I stand at the door and knock; if anyone opens, I shall enter and we shall sup together” (Rv. 3:20). In this text he indicates that he carries his supper with him, and it is nothing but his very own delights and savors that he himself enjoys. In uniting himself with the soul he imparts them, and she likewise enjoys them. For such is the meaning of the words, we shall sup together. Hence these words declare the effect of the divine union of the soul with God, in which Gods very own goods are graciously and bounteously shared in common with his bride, the soul. He himself is for her the “supper that refreshes and deepens love”, for in being bounteous he refreshes her, and in being gracious he deepens love in her.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 01:59:49 +0000
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