This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1, 1 John 4:11-18

11 My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.

13 This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit.

14 We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Saviour of the world.

15 Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.

16 We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

17 Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.

18 In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love. 

This is a wonderful and troubling passage. For John there are two ways in which God comes to dwell in us; our love of each other (in the Christian community), and our faith that Jesus is truly God’s son. The two ways are linked: our love for one another keeps us within the community of faith; while our faith in Jesus as God’s Son receives him as the bearer of God’s love to the world. God is not an individual life but a shared life, shared with his Son Jesus and anyone who receives him. The Spirit is simultaneously our door into God and God’s door into us. If that sounds a bit airy-fairy, we need only think of our experience of human love which works the same miracle. Indeed it’s just that fact of human love which allows John’s thinking to go beyond the perfect circle of God’s love, shared in the Christian community and returned in the community’s worship of God. He writes, “whoever remains (dwells) in love, remains (dwells) in God; for God is love.” Through the experience of true love, in sexual love, friendship, family, even those who do not believe, dwell with the God who is love. That does not diminish the value of faith, but it should give us great respect for the experience of people who do not share our Christian faith. We also knew love before we had faith in God, as our parents loved us and cared for us. Through the sharing of love, God prepares the hearts of men and women for the truth of faith.

But what about the saying, that there is no fear in love? Is that true of our church life and doctrine? Is it true of the love we offer our children?

 Gospel, Mark 6:45-52  

45 And at once he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side near Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away.

46 After saying goodbye to them he went off into the hills to pray.

47 When evening came, the boat was far out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.

48 He could see that they were hard pressed in their rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the sea. He was going to pass them by,

49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and cried out;

50 for they had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke to them and said, ‘Courage! It’s me! Don’t be afraid.’

51 Then he got into the boat with them and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded,

52 because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.

 This is not a story about one night in Galilee. Rather it tells of the eternal relationship of Jesus and his disciples.

 At the start the disciples are on their own, as Jesus is communing with God. After a while they are far from land and struggling with the elements. Jesus, like God in the Psalms, makes his way majestically across the mighty waters to wherever he wishes to go. The disciples experience his God-like power and are terrified. It’s important to note that this story does not attribute their fear to the waves, but to their encounter with Jesus as the “mighty one who walks on the wings of the wind.” Responding to their fear and exhaustion, Jesus joins them in the boat and invites them to put their trust in him. They should have understood from the feeding of the 5000 that Jesus is the one who offers people a share in the divine life.