Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - 1st Week of Advent - Wed
[Isa 25:6-10a and Matt 15:29-37]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.....The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces....[Isaiah] Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.....Jesus summoned his disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. ......[Matthew]
The Gospel According to Matthew consistently portrays Jesus as the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Messiah as well as a "New Moses" fulfilling the law of God in his own person. The scene in today's gospel passage is the second time in this gospel that Jesus feeds the multitudes. However, in this scene Jesus is portrayed in the same way as he is at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. He goes up a mountain and sits down - the posture of a teacher. Then two prophecies from Isaiah are fulfilled. The first (not included in today's scriptures) is Isaiah 35:6: "Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened; then the lame shall leap like a stgag, and the mute tongue sing for joy." Jesus does this in this scene and then he feeds the multitude on the mountain, as Isaiah's prophecy foretells in the first scripture for today. In this he also echoes Moses feeding the Israelites in the desert with manna!
Advent is presented to us as a time of expectation and waiting and a time of promise and fulfillment. It is also a time of revelation in which the "big picture" of God's plan of salvation is revealed in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New. What are the tears we want God to wipe away? How does God "feed" us in our own wilderness? The Advent season, which our secular culture terms "the holidays," can be a very difficult season for many who suffer illness, loss of employment. the recent death of a loved one. Can we reach out to wipe away these tears? Can we be healers with God's love in this season? Can "joy to the world" be more than a sentiment in a carol? All of this is within our reach and within our baptismal call to bear witness to God's love manifested in the Child to be born. AMEN