January 6, 2011
Lectionary
1 Jn 4:19–5:4
Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Reflection
“It is eighteen hundred years or more since Jesus Christ walked on earth. But this was not an event like other events which, once past, disappears into the mist of history. No. His presence here on earth never becomes mere history, and never recedes into the mist of time. Or rather, to a person without faith Jesus is indeed only an historical figure. But to a person with faith Jesus is contemporary: he lives here and now, just as he lived here and now for the first disciples. This contemporaneousness is a condition of faith. Or, more precisely, it is faith.
— Soren Kierkegaard
Prayer
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
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.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
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.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
(Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8)