THE GREAT BANQUET OF HEAVEN

SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO, BISHOP

Rom 12:5-16; Ps 131; Lk 14:15-24

The Invitation to the Heavenly Feast

The heavenly feast is about beholding the face of God. Through our reflections, we have come to understand that every one of us has a default invitation to the heavenly banquet. For we have come to understand that God made us for himself. We understood this truth from the very goal of our creation, as stated by God at the moment of our creation. He made us in his own image and is working on transforming us into his likeness. The transformation work requires our cooperation to achieve its goal. In this sense, we understand why attendance at the heavenly banquet is by invitation. Part of our imaging of God is our possession of free will, which is a result of our rational nature. The exercise of our free will requires that we choose to attend to God or not. In the real sense of it, the invitation is here and now; it has been open to each of us from birth. Each day, we choose to attend the heavenly banquet through our choices. By making rational choices in accordance with God’s will, we are already walking the path leading to the banquet of God. By making rational choices, we are not only living true to the image of God, but we are also being transformed into the likeness of God by our attendance to the word of God. According to Saint Augustine, we do not assimilate the divine truth; rather, Truth assimilates us.

The fact that we make progress on our way to the heavenly banquet, and that every rational and faith imbued choice we make transforms us into Jesus Christ, is evident in the passage from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans. “All of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preacher deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.” Thus, rational and faithful choices and actions incorporate us into the works of divine wisdom operative in the universe of creatures and in the household of God, the Church. The incorporation, which is founded on our shared rationality with God, is perfected by love. Though rationality is necessary for our commencement of our journey to the heavenly banquet, it is not sufficient, for rational works can be diverted for personal interest incompatible with divine will. The love of God, which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts, excludes the danger of personal interests and harmonises our interests with God’s. Therefore, Paul adds: “Do not let your love be a pretence, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit.” When we love what God loves and do what he wills, then we are like him, for his Spirit moves us.

The man who interjected as our Lord was speaking at the meal in the house of the Pharisee did not understand the everyday nature of the invitation to the heavenly banquet and our attendance thereby. “One of those gathered round the table said to Jesus, ‘Happy the man who will be at the feast in the kingdom of God!’ But he said to him, ‘There was a man who gave a great banquet, and he invited a large number of people.” In fact, everybody is invited to the heavenly feast. Recall that the interjection came as Jesus was instructing the host and others to be generous in giving banquets to the less privileged who cannot repay them. We consider that the man in question, who invited a large number of people, all people in actual fact, is the Son of Man. He invites all people to the banquet of his body and blood, soul and divinity. Only faith admits us to his heavenly banquet, through which we are transformed into him daily and mystically.

Saint Charles Borromeo understood this daily demand on us to attend to the invitation of Jesus Christ to participate in the heavenly banquet and dedicated himself from a youthful age to spiritual things. He was born in a castle on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy to a powerful family. As the second son, he was destined for a career in the Church from an early age. He had a doctorate in civil and canon law. He was made a cardinal by his uncle, Pope Pius IV, in 1559. He administered the vacant diocese of Milan, was the protector of the Catholic cantons of Switzerland, the Franciscans, and the Carmelites. He played a major role in the reopening of the Council of Trent. He was ordained a priest in 1563 and consecrated the Archbishop of Milan. He remained in Rome at the demand of the Pope and worked on the Catechism, the Missal, and the Breviary. He reformed his diocese from a distance through a deputy. Saint Charles' reformation work in his diocese when he finally took residence there was phenomenal. He encountered and overcame many oppositions, physical and diabolical, within and outside the Church. He died on 3 November 1584 at the age of 46.

Let us pray: Preserve in the midst of your people, we ask, O Lord, the spirit with which you filled the Bishop Saint Charles Borromeo, that your Church may be constantly renewed and, by conforming herself to the likeness of Christ, may show his face to the world. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.