The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to respond to the Love of God with gratitude and affirmation of Love as our Way.
The Reading from the First Letter of John proclaims God’s Love and Christian Life.
* [4:13–21] The testimony of the Spirit and that of faith join the testimony of love to confirm our knowledge of God. Our love is grounded in the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and the example of God’s love for us. Christian life is founded on the knowledge of God as love and on his continuing presence that relieves us from fear of judgment (1 Jn 4:16–18). What Christ is gives us confidence, even as we live and love in this world. Yet Christian love is not abstract but lived in the concrete manner of love for one another. (1 John, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 72 declares the Israelite king is the instrument of divine justice.
* [Psalm 72] A royal Psalm in which the Israelite king, as the representative of God, is the instrument of divine justice (Ps 72:1–4, 12–14) and blessing (Ps 72:5–7, 15–17) for the whole world. The king is human, giving only what he has received from God. Hence intercession must be made for him. The extravagant language is typical of oriental royal courts. (Psalms, PSALM 72 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Gospel of Mark proclaims Jesus Walking on the Water.
* [6:45–52] See note on Mt 14:22–33.
* [6:45] To the other side toward Bethsaida: a village at the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
* [6:46] He went off to the mountain to pray: see Mk 1:35–38. In Jn 6:15 Jesus withdrew to evade any involvement in the false messianic hopes of the multitude.
* [6:48] Walking on the sea: see notes on Mt 14:22–33 and on Jn 6:19.
* [6:50] It is I, do not be afraid!: literally, “I am.” This may reflect the divine revelatory formula of Ex 3:14; Is 41:4, 10, 14; 43:1–3, 10, 13. Mark implies the hidden identity of Jesus as Son of God.
* [6:52] They had not understood…the loaves: the revelatory character of this sign and that of the walking on the sea completely escaped the disciples. Their hearts were hardened: in Mk 3:5–6 hardness of heart was attributed to those who did not accept Jesus and plotted his death. Here the same disposition prevents the disciples from comprehending Jesus’ self-revelation through signs; cf. Mk 8:17. (Mark, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB, n.d.)
Tamora Whitney offers that the words of this song could not be more true now. “What the world needs now is Love, sweet love.”
God loved us so much he gave us this world, and each other, and his son as savior. But rather than returning that love too many respond with hate and destruction, greed and selfishness. What the world needs now is love, and from the song, “no, not just for some but for everyone.”
“God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” When we love, God is acting in us and through us. God is love and love is God. We share in that love, and need to share it with the world. (Whitney, 2026)
Don Schwager quotes “The wind was against them,” by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD).
"Meanwhile the boat carrying the disciples - that is, the church - is rocking and shaking amid the storms of temptation, while the adverse wind rages on. That is to say, its enemy the devil strives to keep the wind from calming down. But greater is he who is persistent on our behalf, for amid the vicissitudes of our life he gives us confidence. He comes to us and strengthens us, so we are not jostled in the boat and tossed overboard. For although the boat is thrown into disorder, it is still a boat. It alone carries the disciples and receives Christ. It is in danger indeed on the water, but there would be certain death without it. Therefore stay inside the boat and call upon God. When all good advice fails and the rudder is useless and the spread of the sails presents more of a danger than an advantage, when all human help and strength have been abandoned, the only recourse left for the sailors is to cry out to God. Therefore will he who helps those who are sailing to reach port safely, abandon his church and prevent it from arriving in peace and tranquility?" (excerpt from SERMON 75.4) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 4:11-18 invites us to remember, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). What God gives us may not be what we want at any given moment, but it is always exactly what we need: grace to forgive, wisdom in a tough situation, a helping hand from a friend, or even a prick of our conscience telling us to repent.
Our heavenly Father holds back nothing. He may not always give us a pleasant experience, but he will always give us his Son. He will always work to release us from the grip of sin and to form us into his own image and likeness. He will always give himself to us every day, whether we are aware of his presence or not.
Now that’s a love you can count on!
“Father, I believe in the love you have for me. Help me to live and act out of that assurance today.” (Meditation on 1 John 4:11-18, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments in 1 John we hear a lot about love. It is a choice to die to self to serve another. Jesus sent His Spirit into our hearts. What would we like to hear Jesus say to us? The Evil One contradicts Jesus and Love drives fear out . God is not a Divine Accountant but we trust in the love experience revealed in the death of Jesus. The multiplication of the loaves is based loosely on Psalm 23. Jesus is praying and the disciples witness as He walks on the sea and is ready to “pass them by” in the mode of God passing Moses in a theophany. Friar Jude notes they do not understand the loaves of the walking on seas even as the Israelites saw Jesus calm the sea, considered to be the domain of the violent sea creatures.
Father Richard Rohr describes the Bible as a source of ongoing revelation and transformation. The trouble is that we have made the Bible into a bunch of ideas—about which we can be right or wrong—rather than an invitation to a new set of eyes. Even worse, many of those ideas are the same old, tired ones, mirroring the reward-and-punishment system of the dominant culture, so that most people don’t even expect anything good or new from the momentous revelation that we call the Bible.
But the genius of the biblical revelation is that it doesn’t just give us the conclusions! It gives us both the process of getting there and the inner and outer authority to trust that process. Life itself—and Scripture too—is always three steps forward and two steps backward. It gets the point and then loses it or doubts it. In that, the biblical text mirrors our own human consciousness and journey.
We always need what Jesus described as the beginner’s mind of a curious child. What some call a constantly renewed immediacy is the best path for spiritual wisdom. If our only concerns are for the spiritual status of our group, or our private “social security” plans, the Scriptures will not be new, nor will they be good, or even attractive. We will proceed on cruise control, even after reading them. They will be “religion” as we have come to expect it in our particular culture, but not any genuine “good news” with the power to rearrange everything. (Rohr, n.d.)
We seek the Wisdom of the Spirit as we contemplate the experience “that God is love“ in our journey and how we respond to conquer fear with love in our environment.
References
Mark, CHAPTER 6 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/mark/6?45
Meditation on 1 John 4:11-18. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/01/07/1474941/
1 John, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1john/4?11
Psalms, PSALM 72 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/72?1
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. CAC.org. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/revelation-and-transformation/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Take Heart, It Is I; Have No Fear. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/
Whitney, T. (2026, January 7). Daily Reflection January 7, 2026 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-january-7-2026
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