Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 29-July-2024

Universalis/Jerusalem Bible ^

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29 July 2024

Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus
on Monday of week 17 in Ordinary Time



Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Chicago's South Side

Readings at Mass

Liturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).

Readings for the feria

Readings for the memorial

These are the readings for the feria

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First reading

Jeremiah 13:1-11

Let this evil people become good for nothing

The Lord said this to me, ‘Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.’ And so, as the Lord had ordered, I bought a loincloth and put it round my waist. A second time the word of the Lord was spoken to me, ‘Take the loincloth that you have bought and are wearing round your waist; up! Go to the Euphrates and hide it in a hole in the rock.’ So I went and hid it near the Euphrates as the Lord had ordered me. Many days afterwards the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to the Euphrates and fetch the loincloth I ordered you to hide there.’ So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. The loincloth was spoilt, good for nothing. Then the word of the Lord was addressed to me, ‘Thus says the Lord: In the same way I will spoil the arrogance of Judah and Jerusalem. This evil people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the dictates of their own hard hearts, who have followed alien gods, and served them and worshipped them, let them become like this loincloth, good for nothing. For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I had intended the whole House of Judah to cling to me – it is the Lord who speaks – to be my people, my glory, my honour and my boast. But they have not listened.’

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Responsorial Psalm

Deuteronomy 32:18-21

You forget the God who fathered you.

You forget the Rock who begot you,

  unmindful now of the God who fathered you.

The Lord has seen this, and in his anger

  cast off his sons and his daughters.

You forget the God who fathered you.

‘I shall hide my face from them,’ he says

  ‘and see what becomes of them.

For they are a deceitful brood,

  children with no loyalty in them.

You forget the God who fathered you.

‘They have roused me to jealousy with what is no god,

  they have angered me with their beings of nothing;

I, then, will rouse them to jealousy with what is no people,

  I will anger them with an empty-headed nation.’

You forget the God who fathered you.

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Gospel Acclamation	Jn8:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;

anyone who follows me will have the light of life.

Alleluia!

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The following reading is proper to the memorial, and must be used even if you have otherwise chosen to use the ferial readings.

Gospel	John 11:19-27

I am the resurrection and the life

Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life.

If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’

Continue

These are the readings for the memorial

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First reading	1 John 4:7-16

Let us love one another, since love comes from God

My dear people,

let us love one another

since love comes from God

and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,

because God is love.

God’s love for us was revealed

when God sent into the world his only Son

so that we could have life through him;

this is the love I mean:

not our love for God,

but God’s love for us when he sent his Son

to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.

My dear people,

since God has loved us so much,

we too should love one another.

No one has ever seen God;

but as long as we love one another

God will live in us

and his love will be complete in us.

We can know that we are living in him

and he is living in us

because he lets us share his Spirit.

We ourselves saw and we testify

that the Father sent his Son

as saviour of the world.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God lives in him, and he in God.

We ourselves have known and put our faith in

God’s love towards ourselves.

God is love

and anyone who lives in love lives in God,

and God lives in him.

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Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 33(34):2-11

I will bless the Lord at all times.

or

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

I will bless the Lord at all times,

  his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

  The humble shall hear and be glad.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

or

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Glorify the Lord with me.

  Together let us praise his name.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

  from all my terrors he set me free.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

or

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Look towards him and be radiant;

  let your faces not be abashed.

This poor man called, the Lord heard him

  and rescued him from all his distress.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

or

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

The angel of the Lord is encamped

  around those who revere him, to rescue them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

  He is happy who seeks refuge in him.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

or

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Revere the Lord, you his saints.

  They lack nothing, those who revere him.

Strong lions suffer want and go hungry

  but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.

I will bless the Lord at all times.

or

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

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Gospel Acclamation	Jn8:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;

anyone who follows me will have the light of life.

Alleluia!

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Gospel	John 11:19-27

I am the resurrection and the life

Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life.

If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’

Continue

 

Christian Art

Each day, The Christian Art website gives a picture and reflection on the Gospel of the day.

The readings on this page are from the Jerusalem Bible, which is used at Mass in most of the English-speaking world. The New American Bible readings, which are used at Mass in the United States, are available in the Universalis apps, programs and downloads.

You can also view this page with the Gospel in Greek and English.

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For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

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KEYWORDS: catholic; jn11; ordinarytime; prayer

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John
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	John 11
19.	And many of the Jews were come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.	Multi autem ex Judæis venerant ad Martham et Mariam, ut consolarentur eas de fratre suo.	και πολλοι εκ των ιουδαιων εληλυθεισαν προς τας περι μαρθαν και μαριαν ινα παραμυθησωνται αυτας περι του αδελφου αυτων
20.	Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus had come, went to meet him: but Mary sat at home.	Martha ergo ut audivit quia Jesus venit, occurrit illi : Maria autem domi sedebat.	η ουν μαρθα ως ηκουσεν οτι ιησους ερχεται υπηντησεν αυτω μαρια δε εν τω οικω εκαθεζετο
21.	Martha therefore said to Jesus: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.	Dixit ergo Martha ad Jesum : Domine, si fuisses hic, frater meus non fuisset mortuus :	ειπεν ουν μαρθα προς τον ιησουν κυριε ει ης ωδε ο αδελφος μου ουκ αν ετεθνηκει
22.	But now also I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.	sed et nunc scio quia quæcumque poposceris a Deo, dabit tibi Deus.	αλλα και νυν οιδα οτι οσα αν αιτηση τον θεον δωσει σοι ο θεος
23.	Jesus saith to her: Thy brother shall rise again.	Dicit illi Jesus : Resurget frater tuus.	λεγει αυτη ο ιησους αναστησεται ο αδελφος σου
24.	Martha saith to him: I know that he shall rise again, in the resurrection at the last day.	Dicit ei Martha : Scio quia resurget in resurrectione in novissimo die.	λεγει αυτω μαρθα οιδα οτι αναστησεται εν τη αναστασει εν τη εσχατη ημερα
25.	Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live:	Dixit ei Jesus : Ego sum resurrectio et vita : qui credit in me, etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivet :	ειπεν αυτη ο ιησους εγω ειμι η αναστασις και η ζωη ο πιστευων εις εμε καν αποθανη ζησεται
26.	And every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest thou this?	et omnis qui vivit et credit in me, non morietur in æternum. Credis hoc ?	και πας ο ζων και πιστευων εις εμε ου μη αποθανη εις τον αιωνα πιστευεις τουτο
27.	She saith to him: Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world.	Ait illi : Utique Domine, ego credidi quia tu es Christus, Filius Dei vivi, qui in hunc mundum venisti.	λεγει αυτω ναι κυριε εγω πεπιστευκα οτι συ ει ο χριστος ο υιος του θεου ο εις τον κοσμον ερχομενος

(*) v. 27 "ο χριστος ο υιος του θεου ο εις τον κοσμον ερχομενος": the translations add "vivi", "living".

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Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

19. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.

20. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.

21. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

22. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

23. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

25. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

27. She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii. 2) Two miles. This is mentioned to account for so many coming from Jerusalem: And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. But how could the Jews be consoling the beloved of Christ, when they had resolved that whoever confessed Christ should be put out of the synagogue? Perhaps the extreme affliction of the sisters excited their sympathy; or they wished to shew respect for their rank. Or perhaps they who came were of the better sort; as we find many of them believed. Their presence is mentioned to do away with all doubt of the real death of Lazarus.

BEDE. Our Lord had not yet entered the town, when Martha met Him: Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him: but Mary sat still in the house.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii. 2.) Martha does not take her sister with her, because she wants to speak with Christ alone, and tell Him what has happened. When her hopes had been raised by Him, then she went her way, and called Mary.

THEOPHYLACT. At first she does not tell her sister, for fear, if she came, the Jews present might accompany her. And she did not wish them to know of our Lord’s coming.

Then saith Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii. 3) She believed in Christ, but she believed not as she ought. She did not speak as if He were God: If Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

THEOPHYLACT. She did not know that He could have restored her brother as well absent as present.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii. 3) Nor did she know that He wrought His miracles by His own independent power: But I know that even now, whatsoever Thou will ask of God, God will give it Thee. She only thinks Him some very gifted man.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlix. 13) She does not say to Him, Bring my brother to life again; for how could she know that it would be good for him to come to life again; she says, I know that Thou canst do so, if Thou wilt; but what Thou wilt do is for Thy judgment, not for my presumption to determine.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii. 3) But our Lord taught her the truths which she did not know: Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Observe, He does not say, I will ask God, that he may rise again, nor on the other hand does He say, I want no help, I do all things of Myself; a declaration which would have been too much for the woman; but something between the two, He shall rise again.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlix. 14) Shall rise again, is ambiguous: for He does not say, now. And therefore it follows: Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day: of that resurrection I am certain; of this I am doubtful.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii) She had often heard Christ speak of the resurrection. Jesus now declares His power more plainly: Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He needed therefore none to help Him; for if He did, how could He be the resurrection. And if He is the life, He is not confined by place, but is every where, and can heal every where.

ALCUIN. I am the resurrection, because I am the life; as through Me he will rise at the general resurrection, through Me he may rise now.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii) To Martha’s, Whatsoever Thou shall ask, He replies, He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: shewing her that He is the Giver of all good, and that we must ask of Him. Thus He leads her to the knowledge of high truths; and whereas she had been enquiring only about the resurrection of Lazarus, tells her of a resurrection in which both she and all present would share.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlix. 15) He that believeth in Me, though he were dead: i. e. though his flesh die, his soul shall live till the flesh rise again, never to die more. For faith is the life of the soul.

And whosoever liveth, in the flesh, and believeth in Me, though he die for a time in the flesh, shall not die eternally.

ALCUIN. Because He hath attained to the life of the Spirit, and to an immortal resurrection. Our Lord, from Whom nothing was hid, knew that she believed, but sought from her a confession unto salvation: Believest thou this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ the Son of God, which should come into the world.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxii. 3) She seems not to have understood His words; i. e. she saw that He meant something great, but did not see what that was. She is asked one thing, and answers another.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlix. 15) When I believed that Thou wert the Son of God, I believed that Thou wert the resurrection, that Thou wert lifeb; and that he that believeth in Thee, though he were dead, shall live.

Catena Aurea John 11

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St Lazarus between Martha and Mary

Panel
Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid

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Saints of the Day for July 29

(c. 1st century)

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Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus’ story

Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus were evidently close friends of Jesus. He came to their home simply as a welcomed guest, rather than as one celebrating the conversion of a sinner like Zacchaeus or one unceremoniously received by a suspicious Pharisee. The sisters felt free to call on Jesus at their brother’s death, even though a return to Judea at that time seemed to spell almost certain death.

Martha’s great glory is her simple and strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s death. “Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world’” (John 11:25-27).

No doubt Martha was an active sort of person. On one occasion, she prepares the meal for Jesus and possibly his fellow guests and forthrightly states the obvious: All hands should pitch in to help with the dinner. The Lord recognizes that Martha is “worried about many things,” also noting that Mary, who has spent the preparation time at Jesus’ feet listening to his words “has chosen the better part.” John 12:1-8 describes Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet at Bethany, an act which he praised highly.

Immediately after we are told that the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus “because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.” Lazarus was the one of whom the Jews said, “See how much he loved him.” In their sight Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.

Legends abound about the life of Lazarus after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is supposed to have left a written account of what he saw in the next world before he was called back to life. Some say he followed Peter into Syria. Another story is that despite being put into a leaking boat by the Jews at Jaffa, he, his sisters, and others landed safely in Cyprus. There he died peacefully after serving as bishop for 30 years.

It is certain there was early devotion to the saint. Around the year 390, the pilgrim lady Etheria talks of the procession that took place on the Saturday before Palm Sunday at the tomb where Lazarus had been raised from the dead. In the West, Passion Sunday was called Dominica de Lazaro, and Augustine tells us that in Africa the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus was read at the office of Palm Sunday.

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Reflection

In its 2021 decree on combining veneration of Mary and Lazarus with Martha, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments said, “In the household of Bethany, the Lord Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and for this reason the Gospel of John states that he loved them. Martha generously offered him hospitality, Mary listened attentively to his words and Lazarus promptly emerged from the tomb at the command of the one who humiliated death.”

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Saint Martha is a Patron Saint of:

Cooks
Homemakers
Restaurant servers

Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus are Patron Saints of:

Siblings

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franciscanmedia.org

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[fidelis]

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

First Reading:

From: Jeremiah 13:1-11

The linen waistcloth entirely spoiled
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[1] Thus said the Lord to me, "Go and buy a linen waistcloth, and put it on your loins, and do not dip it in water." [2] So I bought a waistcloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. [3] And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, [4] "Take the waistcloth which you have bought, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock." [5] So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. [6] And after many days the Lord said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the waistcloth which I commanded you to hide there." [7] Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.

[8] Then the word of the Lord came to me: [9] "Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. [10] This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this waist- cloth, which is good for nothing. [11] For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.

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Commentary:

13:1-11. This is the first of Jeremiah's symbolic actions reported in the book. Actions of that sort, sometimes appearing to make sense, have the advantage of catching the audience's attention better than an oracle does. It is not easy to imagine how Jeremiah, in the difficult circumstances of the time, could have twice gone to the Euphrates (about 1000 km. or 570 miles away). Therefore, scholars think that this symbolic action may have been something seen in a vision, or else they interpret it as containing a play on the words Parah, the name of a torrent near Anathoth (cf. Josh 18:23) and "Perath", the word used in Hebrew for the river Euphrates. Anyway, this symbolic action means that Judah, the Lord's decorative loincloth (of the sort worn by priests in the temple), will be corrupted by Babylonian influences and thereby destroyed.

God asked Jeremiah to buy a loincloth and put it on, to symbolize that, just as that garment fitted his waist exactly, God wanted the house of Israel and the house of Judah to cling to him (v. 11). The Lord wanted his people to trust in him completely: the word for "clinging" or adhesion often occurs in the book of Deuteronomy, too, to mean the fidelity due to God (cf. Deut 4:4; 10:20; 11:22; 13:5; 30:20). This "cleaving" to God comes about through faith. "Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature (cf. Jer 17:5-6; Ps 40:5; 146:3-4)" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 150). Jeremiah's symbolic action may help us, then, to see that when someone forsakes God and puts all his trust in created things, be they other people or material things, it spoils that person's heart entirely. The passage also reminds us of what our Lord says in Matthew 5:13 about salt that has lost its taste being "good for nothing" (v. 10).

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Gospel Reading:

From: John 11:17-45

The Raising of Lazarus (Continuation)
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[19] Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. [20] When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, while Mary sat in the house. [21] Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. [22] And even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You." [23] Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." [24] Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." [25] Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" [27] She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, He who is coming into the world."

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Commentary:

21-22. According to St. Augustine, Martha's request is a good example of confident prayer, a prayer of abandonment into the hands of God, who knows better than we what we need. Therefore, "she did not say, But now I ask You to raise my brother to life again. [...] All she said was, I know that You can do it; if you will, do it; it is for you to judge whether to do it, not for me to presume" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 49, 13). The same can be said of Mary's words, which St. John repeats at verse 32.

24-26. Here we have one of those concise definitions Christ gives of Himself, and which St. John faithfully passes on to us (cf. John 10:9; 14:6; 15:1): Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. He is the Resurrection because by His victory over death He is the cause of the resurrection of all men. The miracle He works in raising Lazarus is a sign of Christ's power to give life to people. And so, by faith in Jesus Christ, who arose first from among the dead, the Christian is sure that he too will rise one day, like Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23; Colossians 1;18). Therefore, for the believer death is not the end; it is simply the step to eternal life, a change of dwelling-place, as one of the Roman Missal's Prefaces of Christian Death puts it: body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in Heaven".

By saying that He is Life, Jesus is referring not only to that life which begins beyond the grave, but also to the supernatural life which grace brings to the soul of man when he is still a wayfarer on this earth.

"This life, which the Father has promised and offered to each man in Jesus Christ, His eternal and only Son, who 'when the time had fully come' (Galatians 4:4), became incarnate and was born of the Virgin Mary, is the final fulfillment of man's vocation. It is in a way the fulfillment of the 'destiny' that God has prepared for him from eternity. This 'divine destiny' is advancing, in spite of all the enigmas, the unsolved riddles, the twists and turns of 'human destiny' in the world of time. Indeed, while all this, in spite of all the riches of life in time, necessarily and inevitably leads to the frontiers of death and the goal of the destruction of the human body, beyond that goal we see Christ. 'I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me...shall never die.' In Jesus Christ, who was crucified and laid in the tomb and then rose again, 'our hope of resurrection dawned...the bright promise of immortality' ("Roman Missal", Preface of Christian Death, I), on the way to which man, through the death of the body, shares with the whole of visible creation the necessity to which matter is subject" ([Pope] John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 18).

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Click here to go to the My Catholic Life! Devotional thread for today’s Gospel Reading.

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First Reading for the Memorial

From: 1 John 4:7-10

God is Love. Brotherly Love, the Mark of Christians
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[7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.

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Commentary:

7-21. St John now expands on the second aspect of the divine commandment (cf. 1 Jn 3:23)—brotherly love. The argument is along these lines: God is love and it was he who loved us to begin with (vv. 7-10); brotherly love is the response which God's love calls for (vv. 11 16); when our love is perfect, we feel no fear (vv. 17-18); brotherly love is an expression of love of God (vv. 19-21).

This is not tiresome repetition of the ideas already discussed (2:7-11; 3:11-18): contrary to the false teaching which is beginning to be spread, charity is the sure mark, the way to recognize the genuine disciple.

St Jerome hands down a tradition concerning the last years of St John's life: when he was already a very old man, he used always say the same thing to the faithful: "My children, love one another!" On one occasion, he was asked why he insisted on this: "to which he replied with these words worthy of John: 'Because it is the Lord's commandment, and if you keep just this commandment, it will suffice"' ("Comm. in Gal.", III, 6, 10).

7. The divine attributes, God's perfections, which he has to the highest degree, are the cause of our virtues: for example, because God is holy, we have been given a capacity to be holy. Similarly, because God is love, we can love. True love, true charity, comes from God.

8. "God is love": without being strictly speaking a definition (in 1:5 he says "God is light"), this statement reveals to us one of the most consoling attributes of God: "Even if nothing more were to be said in praise of love in all the pages of this epistle", St Augustine explains, "even if nothing more were to be said in all the pages of Sacred Scripture, and all we heard from the mouth of the Holy Spirit were that 'God is love', there would be nothing else we would need to look for" ("In Epist. Ioann. Ad Parthos", 7, 5).

God's love for men was revealed in Creation and in the preternatural and supernatural gifts he gave man prior to sin; after man's sin, God's love is to be seen, above all, in forgiveness and redemption (as St John goes on to say: v. 9), for the work of salvation is the product of God's mercy: "It is precisely because sin exists in the world, which 'God so loved . . . that he gave his only Son' (Jn 3:16), that God, who 'is love' (1 Jn 4:8), "cannot reveal himself other than as mercy". This corresponds not only to the most profound truth of that love which God is, but also to the whole interior truth of man and of the world which is man's temporary homeland" (St Pope John Paul II, "Dives In Misericordia", 13).

9. God has revealed his love to men by sending his own Son; that is, it is not only Christ's teachings which speak to us of God's love, but, above all, his presence among us: Christ himself is the fullness of revelation of God (cf. Jn 1:18; Heb 1:1) and of his love for men. "The source of all grace is God's love for us, and he has revealed this not just in words but also in deeds. It was divine love which led the second Person of the most holy Trinity, the Word, the Son of God the Father, to take on our flesh, our human condition, everything except sin. And the Word, the Word of God, is the Word from which Love proceeds (cf. "Summa Theologiae", I, q. 43, a. 5, quoting St Augustine, "De Trinitate", IX, 10).

"Love is revealed to us in the incarnation, the redemptive journey which Jesus Christ made on our earth, culminating in the supreme sacrifice of the cross. And on the cross it showed itself through a new sign: 'One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water' (Jn 19:34). This water and blood of Jesus speaks to us of a self-sacrifice brought to the last extreme: 'It is finished' (Jn 19:30)--everything is achieved, for the sake of love" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 162).

"Among us": it is difficult to convey in English everything the Greek contains. The Greek expression means that the love of God was shown to those who witnessed our Lord's life (the Apostles) and to all other Christians, whose participate in this apostolic witness (cf. note on 1 Jn 1:1-3; this idea is repeated in vv. 14 and 16). But it also means "within us", inside us, in our hearts, insofar as we partake of God's own life by means of sanctifying grace: every Christian is a witness to the fact that Christ has come so that men "may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).

10. Given that love is an attribute of God (v. 8), men have a capacity to love insofar as they share in God's qualities. So, the initiative always lies with God.

When explaining in what love consists. St John points to its highest form of expression: "he sent (his Son) to be the expiation of our sins" (cf. 2:2). Similar turns of phrase occur throughout the letter: the Son of God manifested himself "to destroy the works of the devil" (3:8); "he laid down his life for us" (3:16). All these statements show that: 1) Christ's death is a SACRIFICE in the strict sense of the word, the most sublime act of recognition of God's sovereignty; 2) it is an atoning sacrifice, because it obtains God's pardon for the sins of men; 3) it is the supreme act of God's love, so much so that St John actually says, "in this is love."

What is amazing, St Alphonsus teaches, "is that he could have saved us without suffering or dying and yet he chose a life of toil and humiliation, and a bitter and ignominious death, even death on a cross, something reserved for the very worst offenders. And why was it that, when he could have redeemed us without suffering, he chose to embrace death on the Cross? To show us how much he loved us" ("The Love of Jesus Christ", chap. 1).