Baking Cookies and singing songs.

December 6, 2017

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

Lectionary: 177

Reading 1: IS 25:6-10A

Responsorial Psalm: PS 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6

Gospel: MT 15:29-37

As we begin our travels through this season of Advent it seems that the excitement is palpable, tangible.   My own excitement for the celebration of the birth of Christ is only amplified by that of my children who have been listening to Christmas music, baking dozens of cookies, and simply looking forward to gathering with family for the holidays.  Likely most of us in America will take this opportunity to overindulge in food and drink, but the one thing we seem to do a good job of is gathering together around a table.    The table is something we have lost in many homes as the gathering place of family, instead, it being the television if there is a gathering at all.   It’s good that we take this opportunity to once again gather around the food that has been prepared so skillfully and just spend some time cherishing one another and reminiscing of the many things that have happened throughout the year. 

In the first reading, we again see this beautiful image of a banquet where everything is rich and decadent.  A feast set for those who waited patiently, enduring till the end.  "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"  Imagine the sense of urgency and desire that the Israelites had for the Messiah at the time of Jesus birth.   They had been enslaved in Egypt, then again by the Persians, the Babylonians, and now the Romans.   Every time they thought they were on top of the world, someone came in and knocked their feet out from under them.    The promise of a Prophet, a Davidic King, who would come in and restore Israel to its former glory would be so cherished and longed for.   Much like a child waiting for Christmas day to open their presents, it would be hard to wait!  Then comes Jesus of Nazareth who gives us a very different image of the Messiah, the one who suffers and dies for our sins, that we might have life everlasting.

1000 This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies: Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.

In the Gospel, reading we see Him performing a miracle that we Catholics see as a foreshadowing of the Last Supper.   Jesus takes their limited resources and he multiplies them into something powerful.   Seven loaves of bread become enough to feed four thousand, with a great deal left over.  While we should indeed be excited for the return of Christ and to pray longingly for the day when He will come again to redeem all of creation, we should also be longing for the Eucharistic feast in which Jesus once again multiplies our meager resources.   Taking simple bread and wine offered by the people, he turns them into a feast that no one is worthy to consume, and then He invites us to gather around that table.  A feast that isn’t just at the end of time, isn’t just on Sunday, Christmas day or Easter.   The wedding feast of the lamb has begun and it is offered to us at every single Mass where we the Body and Blood of our Lord is offered to us as food for the journey.  In that small host is the power of God that promises to “destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. 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.”

1329 The Lord's Supper, because of its connection with the supper which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem. The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used this rite, part of a Jewish meal when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread, above all at the Last Supper. It is by this action that his disciples will recognize him after his Resurrection, and it is this expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies; by doing so they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with him and form but one body in him. The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is celebrated amid the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the Church.

Do we treat the Eucharist with the reverence and honor it is truly worthy of?  One of the things that we are reminded to do during this season of penance and preparation is to get to confession.   We are fortunate enough at our Parish to now have a Priest who is available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation before every Mass.   Take a few minutes, this season especially, to get to Mass a few minutes early.   Go see Jesus before hand to confess and have your sins forgiven, make a true act of contrition with an honest effort to not fall into sin again, and then step forward with trust and faith to receive Him who brings life and mercy.  Yes, Jesus was born 2000 years ago into this world.  Yes, He died and rose again, ascending to Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father.   And, yes, He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.   In the meantime, He comes to us each and everyday in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar to give us the strength needed to continue this race, this spiritual battle we are fighting for the salvation of souls.  Are you ready?  Get ready.  Be ready.  Stay ready.