Come to the Banquet of Love and Forgiveness

Yesterday we had the beautiful reading from Isaiah 25: 6-10a, reminding us that on the “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.  On this mountain,” Isaiah explains, “…[Yahweh] will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; …[God] will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people …[God] will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: ‘Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!’ For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.”  Every Sunday and any day of the week when we participate in the Catholic Mass, we come to this mountain and are provided “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines,” becoming the body and blood of Christ in the transubstantiation.  We are made one with the Lord, who comes to save us, to destroy death for us, to wipe away our tears, to remove the reproach of Satan and of the law from us and from the whole earth through his death and resurrection.  

Yes, Jesus invites us to the banquet (Mt 22: 1-4).   Will we come? Will we look to the one who can save us? Are we willing to put on the wedding garment of good deeds, of honesty and integrity, of humility and repentance, of love and forgiveness of ourselves and others?