Today’s very brief first reading from John’s first letter hammers home the message that we have been contemplating throughout the Christmas season. In four short verses, John uses some form of the word “love” ten times and says clearly what we have been living out in this Christmas season: “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.”
This is love; not that we loved God enough and somehow merited to have Christ become man and atone for our sins, but rather that God, knowing full well how sinful and evil we were and would become, nonetheless sent His Son to atone for that sinfulness and evil. As one of the Prefaces for Sundays in ordinary time states: “For you so loved the world that in your mercy you sent us the Redeemer, to live like us in all things but sin, so that you might love in us what you loved in your Son, by whose obedience we have been restored to those gifts of yours that, by sinning, we had lost in disobedience.” You sent Your Son, so that You might love in us what You in Him. When God loves us, He sends His Son, and we become like Him.
His Heart was Moved
We see this love and mercy clearly displayed in today’s Gospel. “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” The crowds moved Jesus’ heart. They were looking for someone to lead them and to show them what needed to be done. On one hand, the people were under the Romans. Romans oppressed them and made sure they didn’t step out of line: if they did, punishment would be swiftly imposed. Likewise, they were under the chief priests and the scribes. But, as Jesus will say later, they imposed heavy burdens. They also taught human traditions that distorted the purpose of the Law. Jesus – the Father’s love made human – however, comes to teach them the way to God. And to show them that God the Father sent His Son, not to punish, but to save. This is the way the Father loves, and this is what Jesus Christ comes to reveal.
Today, we can ask ourselves about how we see God and His love for us. Are we convinced that God is love? That His love is shown in a particular way through the birth and death of His Son? Do we live out that love in our families? In our jobs and our communities? “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” Let us pray, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of God, for the grace really to know God’s love for us. And, to believe in it with all our hearts.
