Out of Love for Humanity (Tues after Epiphany)

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Christmas celebration is a celebration of the “Undying LOVE of God for humanity”. The beauty of all of this is that God did not remain at the level of being merely described as love. In different ways and at different times, He has practically shown that “love is of Him and that He is love” as described by St John (cf. 1 Jn. 4:7-10). In a more concrete, perfect and mysterious manner, He has expressed His love for humanity in the person of Jesus (cf. Jn. 3:16; 1 Jn. 4:10).


In the gospels, we see that all that Jesus said, all that He did and all that He did not do were purely motivated by love. And all of that proves that He became flesh, He was born and He lived among us because of His LOVE for us. In Mark 6:34-44, Jesus also powerfully expressed His love for humanity in the teaching and miraculous feeding of over five thousand people. In fact the opening statement of that gospel passage emphasized that Jesus saw the crowd and had COMPASSION on them. Out of that COMPASSIONATE LOVE for the crowd, He taught them and fed them.


We may have to take a second look at that miraculous feeding and see that there is something more to it than just mere feeding of the people. I strongly believe that Jesus did not perform that miracle just to address an immediate problem of hunger. It was a subtle but powerful way of signaling to the people that He (Jesus) will be the Bread of Life for the salvation of the world. This is LOVE at its peak!


This Jesus Our Savior was born into a world that was hungry for love, justice and salvation; and as we celebrate and re-enact His coming in the flesh, we do not have to overlook the fact that our present world is still hungry: hungry for love, hungry for justice and hungry for salvation. We know and believe that it is Jesus that can quench this hunger and thirst; that is why He came to us. But we must note that just as He fed thousands of people with the help of his disciples (cf. Mk. 6:37-38), He can also do the same in our time through us. Someone somewhere can be miraculously touched by Jesus through you and me. Each of us can become an instrument of miracles of God's love in the hands of Jesus. In whichever way possible, let us always avail ourselves to be used by Him.


Prayer:

Having been fed by Jesus in so many ways, may I always see the need to present myself to be used by Jesus for the feeding of others, Amen!


Have a great day!



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