1st Week of Advent, Wednesday, Dec 4
Isaiah 25:6-10 / Matthew 15:29-37
The Lord will feast his people; He will wipe away all tears.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thornton Wilder wrote a novel called The Eighth Day. It's about a good and decent family whose lives are filled with pain, sorrow, and hardship caused by evil people.
Wilder ends his novel without alleviating or resolving the family's tragic situation. He shows no heroes being rewarded and no villains being punished.
There is, however, one hint of hope. Wilder likens the family's plight to a tapestry Looked at from one side, it's ugly. Looked at from the other side, it's beautiful. It just depends on your viewpoint.
“In other words,” Wilder seems to say, "from our viewpoint in this life, the family's misfortune is ugly. But from God's viewpoint in the next life, the family's misfortune is beautiful.”
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How deep is our faith in Scripture's promise that God will someday wipe away all our tears? “What soap is for the body tears are for the soul.” Jewish proverb
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For Isaiah, the sign of the messianic times is that through the Messiah God will give to his people an abundance of food and drink. People long for life, and for peace. Prisoners want to be free, the blind wants to see, the hungry wants bread. But likewise, people hunger for consolation, friendship, forgiveness, understanding, acceptance, and justice. These desires are fulfilled when Jesus, the Messiah comes. He gives food to his hungry people. And we, his disciples, have to satisfy the hunger of God’s people today. For he acts through us.
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Some hotels and restaurants offer a buffet meal or even an ala carte buffet for a fixed price. That means that we can eat all we want and eat all we can for just one price. Some may think that it is value for money and that it is worth it. But there is only so much we can eat and we can't pack any of the food home.
But even if we have eaten our fill, or maybe even over-ate, does that mean that we have been fully satisfied and that that we won't be eating for a long time more to come? Certainly not. We will be hungry again and then maybe we will head for the buffet spread again, if that is what we really desire. So in other words, there seems to be a longing that can't be fulfilled or satisfied.
The 1st reading talks about a mountain where the Lord of hosts will prepare a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines. But at the time the passage of the 1st reading was written, there was war and the danger of being captured or killed by the enemy. Even if there was a banquet of rich food and fine wines, there will be no appetite to eat because there was no peace and one can't even eat in peace. But the 1st reading gives a hope that one day the people will be at peace and dine at the banquet of rich food and fine wines. It was a real hope because it was the promise of God.
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And in the gospel, that promise was fulfilled in Jesus who fed the hungry crowd on the mountain top, a meal in which they ate all they wanted. That brings us back to our Advent preparation. We are preparing to celebrate a promise fulfilled and also a promise that will be fulfulled.
So, despite the woes and troubles and anxieties of the present time, we look forward with hope when we will be at the heavenly banquet of rich food and fine wines, where we will rejoice eternally because God has wiped away the tears from every cheek, and nothing more shall we want.
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Opening Prayer
God of all people, you know how people hunger and thirst for truth, love and acceptance. If we accept you and believe in you, we see our deepest desires and aspirations being fulfilled by you as we work for the coming of your kingdom. Help us to let the cup that you pour for us overflow on all your people, that all may praise you, now and forever. Amen
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Saint John of Damascene (late 600s-mid 700s)
Feast Day December 4
John grew up in the rich, luxurious court of the Muslim ruler of Damascus, where his father was a wealthy Christian court official. In order to make sure John had a solid Christian foundation, his father employed a brilliant Sicilian monk named Cosmos, who was a war captive, to teach John. Cosmos schooled the boy in science and theology, in the Greek and Arabic languages, and in the culture of Islam. Then John was ready to assume a high place in the government, which he did. But the spirit of the Muslim rulers was turning against Christians, so John left his position in the government and became a monk in Jerusalem. The date of his death is uncertain. Some think he may have lived to be 104 years old.
We know about John’s faith through his writings. In them John explained the mysteries of the Christian faith, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, and Mary’s Assumption. One book he wrote is an important source on the teachings of the Greek Fathers of the Church. John was also a poet and hymn writer. Some of his songs are summaries of the truths of faith.
Perhaps John is most famous for his opposition to the heresy of the Iconoclasts. The Iconoclasts claimed that is superstitious to have religious images. They wanted to destroy all religious icons, pictures, and statues. The Iconoclasts were supported by the Eastern Christian Emperor Leo III. John of Damascene defended the use of sacred images. He explained that the respect given to them is really given to the person they represent. If you look around an Orthodox Church today, you will see that John won the debate. For all of his efforts to defend the faith, John of Damascene was named a Doctor of the Church in 1890.
