DECEMBER 2, 2009: ISAIAH 25:6-10; MATTHEW
15: 25-37
ON THIS MOUNTAIN THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL PROVIDE A FEAST OF
RICH FOOD FOR ALL PEOPLES. Today’s
readings display a marvelous coordination of Old Testament prophecy and its
realization in the life and ministry of Jesus. The prophecy of a coming time
when God himself would provide a feast for all peoples, without discriminating
between the poor and rich, the educated and the simple, Jew and Gentile is
fulfilled on the mountain-side in Galilee of the Nations. It is at the same
place where earlier in his ministry the Lord first preached the basic truths of
his message that, in this Gospel, he heals so many who come to him, and ending
the day by feeding all who are weary and hungry. In presenting these miraculous
events performed in favor of the poor and needy on the same mountainside,
Matthew subtly makes a point that transcends our Lord’s role as healer: Jesus
is the revealer of truths, commissioned by the Father. He indicates this
dimension of these events by adding that, having ascended the mountainside, he
seated himself, as it were, taking the posture of the teacher. He speaks by his
actions as well as by words; indeed, his very words have all the efficacy of
acts so that when he blesses the bread and fish they are multiplied so as to
suffice for the needs of all who listen to him.
Beginning at the end
of the 18th century and continuing to the present, a large
expenditure of energy has been directed to a study of the Scriptural text and
the styles of composition. This more scientific investigation of the Bible
parallels the expanding development of the natural sciences during this same
period. Not incidentally, the 18th century witnesses to the
increasing influence of physical sciences that followed the spread of
One of the
by-products of the typical mentality of those formed largely by these trends
was the attitude that earlier generations were living in the darkness of
ignorance. As these trends spread the mentality driving them intensified as the
successes of technology seemingly validated the view that the logic of science
is the key to the happy life. The Catholic Church was seen as retrograde during
this earlier period of modern cultural development, as it continues to be in
the teaching of the sacredness of life, its opposition to abortion and
euthanasia, as well as its defense of heterosexual marriage. As science and its
technological applications advance, however, serious doubts appear as to the
wisdom of placing such great trust in the logic of reason alone. The Age of
Reason morphed into the Age of the Atom Bomb, and technology has given rise to
dire threats to the climate and the ecological health of earth. Similarly
Biblical exegesis has more recently become aware that a purely scientific
approach to the Bible is likewise ambiguous, and incomplete. There is a higher
logic than that of reason; it is the logic of life itself. The two are not
contradictory when properly integrated, but just as life itself is more than
its forms and operations, so also are the truths of revelation, while including
reason extend beyond its limits.
Saint Matthew was
keenly conscious of this principle and was guided by it as he composed his
Gospel. So also was the prophet Isaiah and his followers endowed with an
insight that reached father into reality than the linear logic of reason can
grasp. There are depths of meaning in the Biblical text that
are accessible only to faith; reason can approach them but cannot open
the door that gives entry to another world. This is the world to which God
alone has the key, as John puts it in the Apocalypse: “In
my vision I saw a door open in heaven and heard the same voice speaking to me,
a voice like a trumpet saying.’ Come up here; I will show you what is to come
in the future.” (4:1) Jesus takes his seat on the mountainside and begins the
fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah as he heals the crippled and the sick,
and nourishes those with life-restoring bread who followed him into the desert
places of this world, guided by faith in him as their Savior. We who come to
this Eucharist know him who tells us in the Gospel of John that he is the door
and the way. In these first days of Advent and at this altar we thank him for
revealing these truths to us and ask him to make us worthy to enter by faith
through this door that opens into that world where God himself is light and life
unending. &
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