From: 1 John 4:11-18
God is Love. Brotherly Love, the Mark of Christians (Continuation)
[13] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given
us of his own Spirit. [14] And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent
his Son as the Savior of the world. [15] Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son
of God, God abides in him, and he in God. [16] So we know and believe the love
God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God
abides in him. [17] In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence
for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. [18] There is
no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punish-
ment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
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Commentary:
11-12. The Apostle underlines here the theological basis of brotherly love: the
love which God has shown us by the incarnation and redemptive death of his
Son, places us in his debt: we have to respond in kind; so we “ought” to love
our neighbor with the kind of gratitude and disinterest that God showed by ta-
king the initiative in loving us.
Moreover, by loving one another we are in communion with God. The deepest
desire of the human heart, which is to see and to possess God, cannot be sa-
tisfied in this life, because “no man has ever seen God” (v. 12); our neighbor, on
the other hand, we do see. So, in this life, the way to be in communion with God
is by brotherly love. “Love of God is the first thing in the order of commands”, St
Augustine explains, “and love of neighbor is the first thing in the order of practice
[...]. You, who do not yet see God, will, by loving your neighbor, merit to see him.
Love of neighbor cleanses our eyes to see God, as John clearly says, If you do
not love your neighbor, whom you see, how can you love God, whom you do not
see (cf. I Jn 4:20)” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 17, 8).
13. Having the gift of the Holy Spirit is the sure sign of being in communion with
God. Since the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and of the Son, his presence
in the soul in grace is necessarily something dynamic, that is, it moves the per-
son to keep all the commandments (cf. 3:24), particularly that of brotherly love.
This interior impulse shows that the third Person of the Blessed Trinity is at work
within us; it is a sign of union with God.
The Holy Spirit’s action on the soul is a marvellous and deep mystery.”This
breathing of the Holy Spirit in the soul,” says St John of the Cross, “whereby;
God transforms it into himself, is so sublime and delicate and profound a delight
to it that it cannot be described by mortal tongue, nor can human understanding,
as such, attain to any conception of it” (”Spiritual Canticle”, stanza 39).
14-15. Once more (cf. v. 1:4) St John vividly reminds his readers that he, and the
other Apostles have seen with their own eyes the Son of God, made man out of
love for us. They were eyewitnesses of his redemptive life and death. And in the
Son, sent by the Father as Savior of the world, the unfathomable mystery of God
is revealed — that his very being is Love.
“It is ‘God, who is rich in mercy’ (Eph 2:4) whom Jesus Christ has revealed to us
as Father: it is his very Son who, in himself, has manifested him and made him
known to us (cf. Jn 1:18; Heb 1:1ff)” (John Paul II, “Dives In Misericordia”, 1).
16. “Knowing” and “believing” are not theoretical knowledge but intimate, expe-
rienced attachment (cf. notes on 2:3-6; 4:1-6; Jn 6:69; 17:8). Therefore, when St
John says that they knew and believed “the love God has for us” he is not refer-
ring to an abstract truth but to the historical fact of the incarnation and death of
Christ (v. 14), the supreme manifestation of the Father’s love.
“He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”: St Thomas Aqui-
nas explains “that in some way the loved one is to be found in the lover. And so,
he who loves God in some way possesses him, as St John says (1 Jn 4:16) [...].
Also, it is a property of love that the lover becomes transformed into the loved
one; so, if we love vile and perishable things, we become vile and perishable, like
those who ‘became detestable like the things they loved” (Hos 9:10). Whereas,
if we love God, we are made divine, for the Apostle says, ‘He who is united to
the Lord becomes one spirit with him’ (1 Cor 6:17)” (”In duo praecepta, prol.”, 3).
17-18. The perfection of charity shows itself in serene confidence in God and
consequent absence of fear. Love is perfected “in us”, as a gratuitous gift from
God, but it can also be said that it grows with us, thanks to our free response
to grace.
Confidence for the day of judgment (cf. also the note on 2:28) is something we
should have also in this life; a basis for it is to be found in the daring statement,
“...because as he is so are we in this world”. This is not just a reference to imi-
tating Christ’s virtues or qualities: it means the profound identification with Christ
which the Christian should attain: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives
in me” (Gal 2:20).
The fear which is incompatible with charity is servile fear, which sees God only
as one who punishes those who transgress his commandments. But filial fear,
which is compatible with charity, is what gives a Christian a deep horror of sin
because it is something which cuts him off from the love of God his Father. In
the early stages of the Christian life, fear of God is very helpful (cf., e.g., Ps 111:
10; Sir 1:27): the Council of Trent teaches that sinners “by turning from a salu-
tary fear of divine justice to a consideration of God’s mercy, are encouraged to
hope, confident that God will be well-disposed to them for Christ’s sake” (”De
iustificatione”, 6).
18. “The solution is to love”, Monsignor Escriva says. “St John the Apostle wrote
some words which really move me: ‘qui autem timet, non est perfectus in caritate.
‘I like to translate them as follows, almost word for word: the fearful man doesn’t
know how to love. You, therefore, who do love and know how to show it, you
mustn’t be afraid of anything. So, on you go!” (”The Forge”, 260).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Mark 6:45-52
Jesus Walks on Water
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Commentary:
48. The Romans divided the night into four parts or watches, whose length va-
ried depending on the season. St Mark (13:35) gives the popular names for
these watches: evening, midnight, cockcrow, morning. Therefore, it is towards
dawn that Jesus comes to the disciples.
He wishes to teach us that even when we are in very pressurized and difficult
situations, he is nearby, ready to help us; but he expects us to make an effort,
to strengthen our hope and temper our resolve (cf. note on Mt 14:24-33); as an
early Greek commentator puts it: “The Lord allowed his disciples to enter dan-
ger to make them suffer, and he did not immediately come to their aid: he left
them in peril for the whole night, to teach them to be patient and not to be ac-
customed to receiving immediate succor in tribulation” (Theophylact, “Enarratio
in Evangelium Marci, in loc.”).
52. The disciples do not yet see Jesus’ miracles as signs of his divinity. They
witness the multiplication of the loaves and the fish (Mk 6:33-44) and the se-
cond multiplication of the loaves (Mk 8: 17), but their hearts and minds are
still hardened; they fail to grasp the full import of what Jesus is teaching them
through his actions — that he is the Son of God. Jesus is patient and under-
standing with their defects, even when they fail to grasp what he says when he
speaks about his own passion (Lk 18:34). Our Lord will give them further mira-
cles and further teaching to enlighten their minds, and later, he will send the
Holy Spirit to teach them all things and remind them of everything he said (cf.
Jn 14:26).
St Bede the Venerable comments on this whole episode (Mk 6:45-52) in this
way: “In a mystical sense, the disciples’ efforts to row against the wind point
to the efforts the Holy Church must make against the waves of the enemy
world and the outpourings of evil spirits in order to reach the haven of its hea-
venly home. It is rightly said that the boat was out on the sea and He alone
on the land, because the Church has never been so intensely persecuted by
the Gentiles that it seemed as if the Redeemer had abandoned it completely.
But the Lord sees his disciples struggling, and to sustain them he looks at
them compassionately and sometimes frees them from peril by clearly co-
ming to their aid” (”In Marci Evangelium expositio”, in loc.).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.