Living Abundantly by God’s Love

The days after Epiphany invite a renewed clarity: the Light has come, and now the question is how to live by that Light in ordinary time. Today’s Scriptures gather around a single, generative truth; God is love; and then push that truth out into fields of human hunger, social longing, and personal fatigue. They offer not a romantic sentiment, but a pattern: see with compassion, offer what you have, trust the abundance of God, and organize your love into justice.

God’s Initiative Before Our Effort

First John insists on order: before we ever loved God, God loved us. That matters in a world steeped in metrics; productivity dashboards, self-optimization plans, the endless pressure to earn our worth. The Gospel does not begin with our output. It begins with God’s outpouring. Love is not our achievement; it is our origin. To borrow John’s directness: “God is love.” Real knowledge of God, then, is not an intellectual trophy; it’s participation in love.

This also reframes moral life. Christian ethics is not a climb toward divine approval; it is a response to a gift already given. When love is primary, repentance stops being self-accusation and becomes re-alignment. The cross is not proof that God finally decides to love us; it is the radiance of Love meeting our wound at full strength.

Scarcity, Abundance, and the Courage to Offer

Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand is as practical as it is miraculous. The disciples are sensible: it’s late, this is a deserted place; dismiss the crowd. Jesus refuses to outsource compassion: “Give them some food yourselves.” That sounds impossible. It often does. Bills add up, time is thin, headlines are bleak. But Jesus does not ask for what we do not have. He asks, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

The hinge is smallness noticed and offered. Five loaves and two fish, lifted in blessing, broken and shared, become sufficiency; indeed, surplus. The pattern is enduring:

• Inventory: What do I actually have; time, attention, skills, a spare bedroom, a listening ear?
• Surrender: Place it in Christ’s hands with grateful trust.
• Organization: “Sit them down in groups.” Compassion becomes logistics.
• Distribution: Love moves through human hands; discipleship is participation.
• Testimony: Twelve baskets of fragments remind us that God’s economy is generative, not zero-sum.

Applied today, this challenges a culture formed by scarcity talk. It does not deny limits; it transfigures them. Many social problems; food insecurity, isolation, the ache of migrants and the incarcerated; require more than personal generosity; they need just systems. Yet the Gospel trains us in a posture: begin by offering what you truly have, and let God multiply through communal action.

The King Whose Justice Feels Like Peace

Psalm 72 imagines governance saturated with God’s justice: defense of the afflicted, rescue for “the children of the poor,” peace as abundant as mountain air. This is not simply private piety; it’s a vision of public life. In an age of polarized discourse and exhausted institutions, the psalm nudges prayer into praxis:

• Pray for leaders to be endowed with judgment that prioritizes the vulnerable.
• Examine daily choices; consumption, investments, speech, votes; to see whether they echo the kingdom’s preference for the poor.
• Join or support works that embody mercy on the ground and advocate for policies that protect the dignity of those most at risk.

The Alleluia acclamation from Luke frames the Church’s mission succinctly: glad tidings for the poor, liberty for captives. Any spirituality disconnected from this horizon forgets the One it follows.

Compassion That Sees, Teaches, and Feeds

Jesus looks upon a vast crowd and is “moved with pity,” because they are “like sheep without a shepherd.” He teaches; because truth nourishes. He feeds; because bodies matter. He organizes; because compassion deserves competence. This threefold rhythm offers a pattern for leadership in daily life:

• See: Notice people, not just problems. Slow down enough to let another’s reality register.
• Teach: Share what is true and hopeful; resist the cynicism that masquerades as sophistication.
• Feed: Translate compassion into concrete support; meals, mentoring, childcare swaps, rent relief funds, and the steady companionship that makes endurance possible.

Saint André Bessette: The Doorkeeper of Abundance

In the United States today, the Church also remembers Saint André Bessette (1845–1937), the humble Holy Cross brother from Quebec known as the “Miracle Man of Montreal.” Frail from youth, orphaned early, and rejected by several communities due to ill health, he was finally received as a brother and assigned an unglamorous task: porter; doorkeeper; at a college.

He turned a doorway into an altar of mercy. With fierce devotion to Saint Joseph, oil, and prayer, he welcomed the suffering, interceded, and thousands reported healings. He helped inspire and build Saint Joseph’s Oratory, not by wielding power but by persistent love. He once said, “It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most beautiful pictures.” In Gospel terms, he brought his five loaves: a key ring, a stool by the door, a willingness to listen, and a trust that God would do the multiplying.

Saint André challenges a success-obsessed culture: holiness is not a spotlight but a threshold; open the door you’ve been given to guard, and let the weary find rest. Offer your ordinary; God will provide the surplus.

Practicing the Multiplication

To let these readings take root this week:

• Name your loaves: Write down three concrete gifts you can offer; one material, one relational, one skill-based. Put them to use for someone specific.
• Share an actual meal: Invite a neighbor, a newcomer at work, or a student far from home. Set a table; abundance often begins with presence.
• Fast from scarcity language: Each time you catch yourself saying, “There isn’t enough…,” pause and ask, “What do I have that I can offer right now?”
• Pray with Saint Joseph and Saint André: Ask for the grace to notice who is at your doorstep and to welcome them with faith and steadiness.
• Organize your compassion: Join a parish ministry or local nonprofit addressing hunger, reentry for the formerly incarcerated, or housing insecurity. Commit to something measurable.

A Simple Closing Prayer

Jesus, Shepherd and Host, teach my eyes to see need without fear, my hands to offer without calculation, and my heart to trust Your abundance. Make my ordinary a doorway of mercy. Amen.

If God is love; and He is; then nothing offered in love is wasted. Gather your loaves. Sit people down in the green places of your life. Bless, break, and share. The baskets will surprise you.