“God’s Little Pencils” by Colleen O’Sullivan
Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us. (1 John 4:11-12)
and his love is brought to perfection in us. (1 John 4:11-12)
“Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid!”
He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.
They were completely astounded. (Mark 6:50b-51)
He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.
They were completely astounded. (Mark 6:50b-51)
Piety
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| Photo by Evert Odekerken, India, 1988, Creative Commons License, Wikimedia Commons |
“I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
Who is sending a love letter to the world.”
(St. Teresa of Calcutta)[i]
Study
Many of you have taken down your Christmas trees, put away all the other
seasonal decorations, and resumed your “normal” lifestyles. The holidays are over. It’s back to work and school. However, as Christians, we never stop celebrating
Christmas. We continue to consider all
that this amazing gift of a Savior means to us.
We’ve moved beyond the stable in Bethlehem, the shepherds, and even the three
kings from the East to our Scripture readings for today, which seek to draw us
deeper into the mystery of God’s coming to earth and becoming one of us.
John tells us in our first reading that God is love. God loves us so deeply that God’s Son took on
human flesh and blood that we could identify with him. If God loves us to such an extent, how can we
help but love one another? The type of love
John is describing is called agape love.
The Living Space
(a web-based publication of the Irish Jesuits) commentator on today’s readings
says, “I would
like to offer a definition of agape which may be helpful. It is: “a passionate
desire for the well-being of the other.”
Consider that
for a moment. God, who created everything
thing in the entire universe, who is above all, desires nothing less than your
well-being and mine! We are never too insignificant for God to want
good things for our lives. And as John says,
the way others experience God’s love is through you and me and the love we show
one another. Jesus no longer walks our
streets here on earth. It’s up to us to write
the love letters now by the way we treat others, by showing our deep desire for
their well-being.
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| Jesus Stilling the Tempest, James Tissot, between 1886-1894, Brooklyn Museum, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons[ii] |
We have an
example of Jesus’ caring for others in today’s Gospel reading. Here we see the disciples, who before this,
have witnessed the feeding of the 5,000 and shown by their own words that they
haven’t understood a thing Jesus has been trying to show them. Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for the
hungry, thirsty crowd, but the disciples were all for sending them to the
nearest non-existent Burger King and washing their hands of these people. Now it’s
night and the disciples are in a boat on the sea, which is growing more
turbulent by the minute. They’re frightened
and when they see someone/something coming towards them on the water, their
fear turns to terror. Is this a ghost
approaching? It turns out to be their
friend Jesus. He climbs into the boat
with them and compassionately calms the storm as well as their fears. Compassion is an integral component of the type
of love John writes about in his letter.
Action
When God wants to send a love letter to the world, God would like to use
each of us as writing implements. When
we make friends and serve as friends, God hopes that we will have the
compassion and generosity to pass on the love we have received. What kind of letter do you write with your
actions toward others?
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