He Began to Teach Them

January 8, 2008

Tuesday After Epiphany

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. 1 John 4:7-8

When he disembarked and 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. Matthew 6:34

Piety

Jesus, please satisfy us, your servants, with your words of hope and love. Bolstered by your support, help us to live lives that will satisfy your mission for us here on earth. Amen.

Study

According to the notes in the NAB for 1 John 4: Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God's very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God's love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can "see" the invisible God.

Coming right out of the Christmas season, what is the first thing we hear Jesus teaching to the people? To love and to share. As the first and last messages Jesus taught, we can not underestimate the importance of this in our Christian lives.

Before Jesus taught this important lesson, the disciples noted that this was a deserted place. After the lesson, the people were satisfied. “They all ate and were satisfied.”

The scene also allows us to recall the Hebrew Bible where people were given enough by God to satisfy them, when God rained manna on them. There, too, the Israeli people found themselves in a deserted place where they were satisfied. In Exodus 16, we found that “They so gathered that everyone had enough to eat.”

Deuteronomy 8:3-- He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD. Based on this generosity, the people were told to “walk in his ways.”

Action

Many readers joined me in expressing frustration with NPR over the atheist story aired on the Sunday before Christmas. Maybe our notes had an impact. On Sunday, the Feast of the Epiphany, Weekend Edition Sunday broadcast a segment of its “This I Believe” series penned by Sr. Helen Prejean.

Sr. Helen begins her essay with these words: “I watch what I do to see what I really believe. Belief and faith are not just words. It's one thing for me to say I'm a Christian, but I have to embody what it means; I have to live it.” Her message Sunday complements the words we hear in today’s scripture. You can read or hear the rest of it at this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17845521

What do you believe? Why not try to write your thoughts down? Consider submitting them to “This I Believe?”

If that is too much, now may be a good time to let NPR know that we appreciate their appropriate handling of a suitably religious topic that supported Christianity by airing this important essay.