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.
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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.
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