A popular bookmark shows a picture of Christ on the cross, and the accompanying words are: 'I asked Jesus "How much do you love me?" and Jesus said "This much - "and He stretched out His arms and died.' This captures in an attention-grabbing way what John says in his First Letter: "God sent His only Son . . . to be the expiation for our sins." (4: 9-10).

v John goes to the root of our faith - love. God Himself is Love, a love which cannot be defined by human standards. We come into the Presence of God when we care for and about each other, because that is how God loved us - giving us life by sacrificing His Son for us, to destroy the power of sin over us.

This pattern of self-sacrifice, in great or small things, is God's spirit in us, the experience of God in us, 'not our love for God' (1Jn. 4:10). So we see in Mark's account of the first feeding of the multitude, that it is Jesus who tells his disciples "Give them something to eat yourselves" (Mk: 6:36). Obviously, it is not enough for them to feel compassion for the hungry and tired multitudes - they themselves have to do something concrete for them. Yet on their own nothing can happen. The disciples still need Jesus to work with them, organizing the collection of food available and the grouping of the people, before the miracle of the multiplication can take place - Jesus with them every step of the way, God's spirit in them.