THE BANQUET OF LIFE

SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Isa 55:1-3; Ps 145:8-9,15-18; Rom 8:35,37-39; Mt 14:13-21

Our Invitation to the Banquet of God

God, in his infinite love and compassion, never ceases to invite us to the banquet of life, for which he created us. The whole creation bears the trace of the divine invitation to man. The purpose of creation is to lead us gradually to God’s presence in the beatific vision. Sin disfigured creation and made it unable to attract and lead us to God. The disfigurement is more in us than in the creation. Sin corrupted the unrestricted desire within us to for God by directing it to creatures. The fact that creatures can never satisfy our deepest desire leaves us hollow, hungry, and thirsty for eternity. This is exactly what hell is like. Hell arises from our failure to attend the divine banquet prepared for us for all eternity. The work of the devil, the ancient serpent or dragon, who lost his place in heaven due to his pride and disobedience, is to continuously tempt us away from the path leading to the banquet he has missed for eternity. He does this by putting or dangling creatures before us always, intending to corrupt our desire for God by substituting creatures for God as objects of our innate desire. Once God is out of the picture, the self takes the position of God as a subterfuge of the devil. He presents what seems good to us, but is very harmful to our constitution and relationship with God. Relating to creatures as creatures, bearing in mind that God created them for us, keeps us on track to the divine banquet.

When we are in sin, we lose much of the natural light of reason, which helps us to relate well with creatures as a path to the Creator. We suffer blindness due to our loss of divine light and presence. This is the consequence of sinning against God. God was clear on the death that would follow whenever we choose to disobey his word. “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Gen 2:17. Hence, sin, which is always a disobedience to the will of God or his word, causes death; it is a de-participation in life that is an invitation to a divine banquet. Sin reduces our attendance at life’s party, which we attend in God. So, when we are fully alive, our first point of participation is through the senses. We behold the beauty and wonder of the material creation and praise God for it as a gift received from him. Due to the diminution of our natural ability to participate in the banquet of life through sin, in addition to creation, God revealed himself through the Law and the Prophets. Hence, God’s invitation through Isaiah the prophet is a reiteration of the initial invitation he issued from the beginning through creation. “Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy corn without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk. Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.” God himself is the banquet; our lives are invitations we received to attend the banquet.

Our sins do not alter the invitation to the banquet; God continues the invitation in various ways throughout our lifetime. The Psalmist informs us that every creature understands that God gives us all good gifts; only man seems to be ignorant of this knowledge. “The eyes of all creatures look to you, and you give them their food in due time. You open wide your hand, grant the desires of all who live.” Even when we do not direct our attention to him, God continues to supply our needs and satisfy our desires, thereby keeping his invitation open to us every moment of our lives. This unremitting love of God the Father for us finds its fullest expression in his sending the Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour. Saint Paul says that the love the Father expressed for us in Christ is impeded by nothing created; we are the ones who close our doors to God’s love. “Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of him who loved us.” The trials, many times, come from the devil, but God permits them for our good.

God allows trials because they can never impede his love for us, but they purify us to see and understand his providential care and love. Saint Paul affirms this saying: “For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The loving Father of Jesus Christ does not permit anything unless it is out of love for us. This truth is so central to our spirituality and a key to unlock the door of conformity to the divine will. As in the Gospel, the people who followed Jesus Christ everywhere are the poor and downtrodden, while the rich and well-to-do remained in their fine houses and comfort zones. When he heard the news of John the Baptist's death, the people followed him.  “But the people heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot. So as he stepped ashore, he saw a large crowd, and he took pity on them and healed their sick.” He did not save the Baptist because his death was to fulfil the will of God. Through that death, John entered the fullness of the divine banquet after participating in it here on earth. Jesus’ task here on earth is to make that banquet as vivid as possible for those who follow him.

He did that by feeding the five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. The Son of Man is the fullness of God’s invitation to the divine banquet in heaven. Those who listen to his words and follow participate in the banquet even here and now in mystery. “Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves handed them to his disciples who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps remaining; twelve baskets full. Those who ate numbered about five thousand men, to say nothing of women and children.” The mystery of our participation in the divine banquet is what we celebrate in the Eucharistic Sacrament. The Father invites us to eat of his love revealed in the Son, who feeds us with his body and blood, his soul and divinity. In the Sacrament of the Altar, we enter into deep communion with God, and eat of his sacred presence among us in the Church. “The Lord is kind and full of compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love. How good is the Lord to all, compassionate to all his creatures.”

Let us pray: Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who live and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.