Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop
January 5, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 72 which will be familiar to us because it is used six times throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
Psalm 72: 1-2
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
This short post-Epiphany season is all about “manifestation” – how Jesus begins to show us the face of God-become-flesh.
The core message, conveyed to us in the daily progressive reading of 1 John, is that God is Love.
Our Gospel today, the feeding of the 5000, shows how that Love is expressed – merciful action for those in need.
Our psalm, written a thousand years before Christ, exults in the expectation of such a merciful Messiah:
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Let us begin once again, in this new year,
to soak in the words and images
describing this longed-for and loving Savior.
Poetry: When Little Was Enough – Irene Zimmerman, OSF
(LUKE 9:10–17)
“Send the people away from this deserted place
to find food and lodgings,” the twelve urged Jesus,
“for the day is advanced and it is almost evening.”Jesus looked at the crowd (there were about five thousand)
and looked at his disciples, still excited and tired
from their first mission journey.What had they learned from the villagers of Galilee
who shared bread and sheltered them from cold night winds?
What had they learned of human coldness on the way?He remembered the pain in his mother’s voice
as she told of his birth night when they found no room
in all of Bethlehem, House of Bread.“You give them something to eat!” he said.
“We have only five loaves and two fish!” they protested.
“How can we feed so many with so little?”
He understood their incredulity.They had yet to learn that a little was enough
when it was all they had—
that God could turn these very stones to bread.“Have the crowd sit down in groups of fifty,” he said.
Jesus took the food and looked up to heaven.
He blessed it, broke it, gave it to the disciples
to distribute to the new-formed churches.Afterwards, when everyone was satisfied,
the twelve filled twelve baskets of bread left over—
as faith stirred like yeast within them.
Music: Justice Shall Flourish – Rory Cooney
Lavish Mercy 