Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we heard from the readings of the Scripture of the love that God has shown us and manifested to us in the person of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the whole world. Through Him we have seen God’s love becoming tangible, no longer distant and unapproachable, and in Him, all of us have received the new experience of God’s ever enduring love.

In our first reading today from the Epistle of St. John the Apostle we heard St. John describing plainly and clearly what is God’s love, and how God Himself is love and the personification of true love. And he said that unless we know love and practice love among ourselves, then we cannot say that we have known God or have faith in Him because God Himself is love, and if we know God, we would have known love and how to love.

The Lord manifested His love in sending His Son into the world so that by this act, this singular act of supreme love, He may save all of us His beloved ones, by the act of His most merciful love, in reaching out to us and touching us with His own hands, in caring for us and in providing us all that we needed, just as He has always intended. He has always loved us and been faithful to the Covenant He had made with us, even when we were still rebels and being unfaithful.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus and His miraculous feeding of the five thousand men, which indicated an even much greater number of people, as the women and children were not counted among the numbers, and it was very likely that those men gathered there would have brought their families together with them, either to listen to Him or to be healed by Him.

And the Lord had pity on them when He saw how they had been following Him for days on end, without food and sustenance, and they were all very hungry. The Lord took the five loaves of bread and the two fishes that were there, offered by a young boy, and after having blessed them, multiplied them miraculously by His power into such a quantity of food that all the people had enough to eat, and twelve baskets of leftover were obtained in the end.

We see in this act, how God truly cared for His people, feeding them and caring for them in their hour of need, while at the same time also caring for them spiritually through His teachings and through His words calling on all of them to turn away from their sins and to find their path towards God and His grace and love, as shown through Christ Himself.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all of us having known of God’s love and having received His love at all times throughout our lives, let us all first be grateful and appreciative of all these love which we have received from God. Let us all be thankful that the Lord has shown His compassion and kindness to us despite us having been irresponsible, stubborn and hard-hearted all these while.

And then, we are all now having been beloved by God, full of His compassion and love. Can we love the Lord in the same manner as how He has first loved us all so generously, brothers and sisters? Every time we celebrate Christmas, we are being reminded of God’s love incarnate in the Flesh, in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, born into this world. Through Him all of us have received the fullness of God’s promise and love.

Let us all therefore be filled with renewed love of the Lord, with faith and trust in Him and His providence. Just as He has fed His people and guided them to His truth, He shall guide us all and provide us all the path to eternal happiness and true joy, for an eternity of glory with Him in Heaven. Let us all bear witness to this love and commit ourselves to be the witnesses of the light and salvation of God in the midst of all the darkness.

May God be with us always, and may He strengthen us and our resolve that we may ever serve God and dedicate our time, effort and attention to make the Lord known in this world, within our own communities and among all those whom we meet and encounter regularly in life. May God bless us always, now and forevermore. Amen.