7 January 2020
Tuesday after Epiphany, Memorial of St. Raymond of Penyafort
“In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten 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.” (1 Jn 4:9-10)
We continue to ask for the grace that recognizing Christ’s manifestation of divine love, so that our hearts might be transformed to offer true adoration for such infinite love. As in yesterday’s Gospel, so, too, today we see Jesus’ love on display in his compassion for both the spiritual and the bodily needs of the crowds who gathered to listen to him. His first act of merciful love is to teach them, to fill their hearts and their minds with the revelation of God’s love that He came to bring. Then, just as He has attended to their spiritual hunger, so too, Jesus seeks to feed the bodily hunger of the thousands who have come. And what is more, in this manifestation, He has the apostles cooperate in the feeding of the multitudes.
Our hearts hunger for love, for personal love, for divine love. In our listening to the Word proclaimed and in the Word made flesh who comes to feed us with His very life, may our recognition of His Presence and love help us to desire more and more the grace to work with Him in manifesting that love to those around us who hunger for love and food still.