4 December 2024 - for all peoples a feast

Today's Readings

(Audio)

On this mountain the LORD of hosts

will provide for all peoples

A feast of rich food and choice wines,

juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.

In Matthew Jesus had already begun to fulfill this oracle for the Jewish people by feeding the five thousand. It is suggested by scholars that this other feeding of the four thousand about which we read today was directed toward the Gentiles, thus ensuring that feast provided by God would truly be for all people. There were are several clues in the text that suggest this. The first is that, after Jesus performed various cures, the people "glorified the God of Israel". That would have been an unusual thing to write about Jewish people because it would have been unnecessarily redundant. The four in the four thousand loves could refer to the four cardinal directions. Tellingly, the seven fish and seven baskets could refer to the seven nations of Canaan. It is noteworthy, then, that this scene follows shortly after the Canaanite woman pleaded with Jesus to receive scraps from the master's table.¹

If all of this is true then we can see from Jesus that his response to hungry crowds was not limited to one people in one time and place. Rather, his heart was moved with pity for all who hungered. They were, by definition, blessed to have a hunger which Jesus himself could satisfy. If this is so then we need not fear that Jesus cared about ancient crowds but would not care about us. We can be confident that the feast promised by Isaiah is intended for us as well.

On this mountain he will destroy

the veil that veils all peoples,

The web that is woven over all nations;

he will destroy death forever.

The promised feast was not merely delicious, containing all sweetness within. It was powerful. It would destroy the veil that veils all peoples and would be associated with the destruction of death itself. To what could this refer if not the Eucharist, which was said to be "the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying" by Ignatius of Antioch (see Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 20)?

The Lord GOD will wipe away

the tears from all faces;

The reproach of his people he will remove

from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.

The Eucharist has the real power to comfort us in our sorrows and to heal us where we are wounded the most deeply. This is the table spread before us by the Lord himself. It is the green pastures where he himself desires to refresh our souls. Let us not take this feast for granted as though it was just a repeat of another event about which we already read. The table of the Lord, both of the word of God and of the Eucharist, is inexhaustible. 

---

1) Mitch, Curtis; Sri, Edward. The Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 199). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Damascus Worship Featuring MarySarah Menkhaus - Body And Blood

3 December 2024 - like a child

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,

for although you have hidden these things

from the wise and the learned

you have revealed them to the childlike.

As Mary sang, "he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (see Luke 1:52). Paul understood this reversal as well, writing, that "since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (see First Corinthians 1:21). It was not that God despised the wise and the learned. Rather he was simply a mystery too great for human understanding. His nature transcended that which accessible to even the greatest human wisdom. But since God desired to reveal himself to the world, people great and small alike would need to become childlike in order to receive that revelation.

Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father.

The Son himself was perfectly childlike, open to receive from the Father whom he trusted completely. What he first received from the Father he was willing to share with those whom he would make his brothers and sisters, adopted children of his Father. He would reveal what the Father had given him to reveal by allowing others to share in his own intimate relationship of communion with the Father. They would not experience the pride that comes from the illusion that one is firmly rooted in one's own strength. But they would experience the peace and the love of knowing that their source was in God, that they were known by God, and loved by him. This was not a bridge that could be built by human wisdom nor a tower that could be erected by human ability. It was an invitation to divine life that could only be received as a grace.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father,

and who the Father is except the Son

and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

What the Father and the Son chiefly desired to reveal was themselves and their Holy Spirit. This might have seemed less interesting from an outside perspective to devotees of mystery cults who pursued layer after layer of secret and hidden knowledge. We might imagine people in our own day obsessed with conspiracy theories, aliens, and the paranormal, would find those other things much more interesting than coming to know God as Father. It was not a revelation designed to appeal to curiosity. Nor was it secret knowledge that led to being prideful as a consequence of being an insider. To be sure, people would approach Catholicism in that way. But such an approach would not lead toward the core of what Catholicism had to offer. What we were meant to come to know was not mere trivia. It was God himself, revealed in Jesus Christ that was both source and summit of revelation.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

For I say to you,

many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,

but did not see it,

and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

We are among the blessed who have been given the grace to see and to hear what even the greatest of prophets and kings only saw and welcomed from a distance. They were those whom the author of Hebrews said had "seen them and greeted them from afar" (see Hebrews 11:13). They "did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect" (see Hebrews 11:39-40). Or we can be among them. But we must allow ourselves to become small and childlike, and learn to trust and to receive. We can look to Jesus and his own relationship with the Father to see this lived out perfectly. And we can be confident that to the degree that we embrace smallness we will receive the same strength and confidence that Jesus possessed because of his own trust in the Father. It was a world of people who had embraced such trust about whom Isaiah prophesied in today's first reading.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,

with a little child to guide them.

DC Talk - Mind's Eye

2 December 2024 - I will come

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.

We can see the servant as representing the soul of the entire human race, meant to live entirely motivated by love, but unable to consistently achieve this. Our movement was meant to be directed by desire for the true good. But our willingness to substitute lesser things for that good became habitual, making approaching it increasingly difficult. We suffered dreadfully because of this double mindedness by which we claimed to desire what was best but often actually chose something much less.

He said to him, "I will come and cure him."

Advent should represent our preparation for the fact that Jesus looked at the human race and said what he now spoke to the centurion. Somehow the one who was perfect and entirely good, all light and no darkness, chose to descend to our realm of sin and shadow in order to save us and set us free. To this we tend to think, 'Well, of course'. But is it really so obvious? He stood to gain nothing, and in fact would not accomplish his mission without much suffering on his part. He was already perfectly fulfilled and content living in a perfect communion of love with the Father and the Spirit. And yet he stepped down to earth and pitched his tent among us. He was driven to do so by a love that is was so utterly unfathomable that dismissing it as a matter of course was the way most people seemed to come to terms with it.

Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;

only say the word and my servant will be healed.

Thank God for this centurion who did not take the unmerited love of Jesus for granted and gave us words to remember and to use so that we could approximate his response. Thank God for the centurion's faith by which we remember that Jesus could simply have said the word. He could have spoken and restarted creation when we chose against him in the first place. He could have spoken and changed us from the outside in, forcing his will upon us. But rather than doing either of these he chose to come, to be one of us, and to win us over by his display of excessively extravagant love.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks;

One nation shall not raise the sword against another,

nor shall they train for war again.

O house of Jacob, come,

let us walk in the light of the LORD! 

God desired that what he promised through Isaiah be accomplished through Jesus and his Church. This was that the world would be instructed in truth and learn to walk in the paths of peace. He wanted to establish his holy mountain so that nations could recognize its goodness and stream toward it freely, beginning to internalize his vision for us as our own, and to desire for ourselves what he first desired for us.

Matt Maher - Your Love Is Extravagant

1 December 2024 - stand erect and raise your heads

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The signs that would precede the coming of the Son of Man in his glory would lead individuals to fear and nations to dismay. Anticipation of what was coming, without any context to interpret it, would lead only to a fear so great that some would die of fright. The signs themselves were so unsettling that they didn't leave anything on earth to which people could cling. Even the powers of the heavens would be shaken. But in spite of all of this apocalyptic drama and regardless of how it would affect those with no context to understand it the followers of Jesus were called to a different response.

But when these signs begin to happen, 

stand erect and raise your heads 

because your redemption is at hand.

What exactly was it that allowed Christians to see the same things that the rest of the world saw and respond with confidence and hope rather than fear? In the first place, it was the fact that Jesus had provided the context in advance. They were able to understand that even extremely unsettling events with after another could be a part of the divine plan. But even so, the signs would be so significant that the temptation to be afraid would exist even for Christians. They would need to practice in advance by going to God with potential sources of anxiety.

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (see Philippians 4:6).

If Christians merely lived like everyone else, and dealt with their anxieties in the same way, then they would be in the same situation as everyone else at the coming of Jesus. The day would catch them by surprise like a trap just as it would others. The anxieties of daily life could either be occasions of grace and growing in relationship with Jesus or they could be distractions from such growth. They could either keep individuals ego bound and self-referential or cause them to open their horizon to Jesus. Self-medicating with carousing and drunkenness might seem to work for a while but would prove to be mere distractions that were unsustainable. Distraction could not ultimately insulate anyone against the coming of the day that would assault everyone who lived on the face of the earth. Christians were meant to be ready to face that day because of the way they lived, not in fear, but in trust that they put into practice each day leading up to it.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (see First Peter 5:6-7).

According to Jesus, being ready to meet him when he came again was not something Christians were meant to take for granted. They were meant to prepare by prayer. Then would be able to escape the tribulations that were coming by divine assistance and finally stand before the Son of Man with divine strength that was itself his gift.

Chris Tomlin - Even So Come