XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

The eschatological banquet

Readings: Is 25:6-10; Phil 4:12-14,19-20; Mt 22:1-14

In the Bible, the banquet is a profound sign of sharing and brotherhood. In the shared meal, the family consolidates the reciprocal relationships among its members (Ps 128:3; 1 Sam 1:1-8; Judg 19:4-8). But the banquet is also a moment of deep bonding with other people outside the family unit. Eating at the same table means establishing relationships of communion: whoever shares food, the source of life, commits to sharing the very life of the fellow diner as well. The banquet is thus placed as a seal on reconciliations, official alliances, and pacts of friendship (Gen 26:26-31; 31:43-54; Ex 18:12; Judg 9:26-29).

When God wants to express the highest union with humanity, in the Book of Revelation, He does so with the image of a banquet: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). To express intimacy with God in the Kingdom, Jesus speaks of the great eschatological wedding banquet, to which only those in white robes are admitted (Gospel: Mt 22:1-14), those who are wise and watchful (Mt 25:1-12), and in which “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11), even if they are “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” (Lk 14:21).

The banquet does not express communality alone: it is a sign of celebration, of gladness. Isaiah describes the joy of the final “Day of the Lord” as “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines” (first Reading: Is 25:6). And when Jesus wants to express the joy of the Kingdom, he will present the future of believers as a great banquet (Gospel: Mt 22:1-14; cf. 8:11; 25:1-14; Lk 12:35-38; 13:29; Lk 14:15-24): the disciple will be invited to take part in that gathering which Jesus defines as «the joy of the Lord»: “Well done, good and faithful servant…: share your master’s joy!” (Mt 25:21). A wonderful banquet in which the Lord will make himself a servant: “The master…, truly I tell you, will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at table and will come and wait on them” (Lk 12:37).

Every Eucharist is a prelude and sign of the great eschatological banquet: “The Eucharist… is always an intermediate reality or partial convocation between the paschal feast of Jesus and the universal feast of the nations to which it necessarily refers and which it prepares time and again… For this reason, since the first Christian generation, participating in the Eucharist meant receiving a «seed of immortality», an «antidote against death», a «ius ad gloriam» for our body as well, a pledge and a down payment, in short, of the final resurrection – transfiguration… The Eucharist is not only a commemorative banquet, but also an anticipatory one, because the Lord’s Passover is already a sure victory over death and all adverse powers… Thus every Eucharistic celebration is «viaticum», a stage on the journey of hope toward the «promised land», but at the same time new strength to fill every present reality with the glory of Christ” (P. Visentin). The Eucharist “is part of the realities that Christ prepares for those among his faithful who are journeying down here «until he comes»” (S. Legasse).

Paul VI said: “It is the Mass, this celebration of our recurring fortune to be able to meet Christ, not only by way of memory, symbol, and promise, but likewise and principally by way of true and living communion…, our strength, our food, our happiness, our humble and blessed ecstasy that allows our weary and concrete earthly journey to taste an ineffable prelude to heavenly life; it is our mysterious daily encounter, under the sign of his cross, with the glorious Christ at the right hand of the Father”. Truly then “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (second Reading: Phil 4:13).