Daily Reading
First Reading
1 John 4:11-18
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
Psalm
Psalm 72:1-2, 10, 12-13
Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts.
For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
Gospel Reading
Mark 6:45-52
Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates his control over nature by walking on the sea.
What we see here on vivid display is Jesus the miracle worker. Modern thinkers tend to be put off by this dimension of the Gospel. Thomas Jefferson took a razor to the Gospels, cutting out everything that smacked of the supernatural. But he had to make an absolute mess of Mark’s Gospel, which is positively chock-a-block with such things.
Jefferson’s contemporary, the great modern philosopher David Hume, claimed that since the laws of nature were set, miracles were, strictly speaking, impossible. Following these Enlightenment-era prompts, an awful lot of contemporary Christian theologians and Bible commentators have tried to explain away Jesus’ miracles as spiritual symbols.
But as N.T. Wright argues, it’s hard to explain the enormous popularity of Jesus apart from this fascination with his wonder-working. More to it, though God typically lets the universe run according to its natural rhythms and patterns, what is to prevent God from shaping it and influencing it occasionally in remarkable ways in order to signal his purpose and his presence?