Fifth day within the Octave of Christmas : Tuesday 29th December 2020

The Gospel, according to John speaks typically of God the Father “sending Jesus”, and John records that Jesus himself often spoke of the Father as “he who sent me” (Jn 14:28).

This notion of the Father “sending” Jesus is of significant theological importance. However, there are other expressions, to which we must pay full attention. One most important of these other expressions is used for the Entrance Antiphon for today’s Mass, namely: Jn 3:16: “God loved the world so much, that he gave his only Son”.

In this expression with the verb “gave”, we have the basis for a beautiful theology of Jesus as God’s gift to us. So, it leads us to a profound theology of God’s many gifts and finally to a theology of Jesus’ gift of himself to us in the Eucharist.

Based on John’s Greek text, I would prefer to translate it as: God loved the world “in this particular way” by becoming a man — the Word became flesh. He chose this particular way to show God’s love for us, namely, by giving us his Son.

Father in heaven as You loved us in this particular way and gave us the gift of Your only Son. Through Him may we learn to be genuinely grateful for the gifts You give us Amen.