Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Andrew’s Church, Manhattan

Leonine Forum Advent Day of Recollection

December 5, 2020

To listen to an audio recording please click below:

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Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Second Sunday in Advent, Year B

December 6, 2020

Is 40:1-5.9-11, Ps 85, 2 Pet 3:8-14, Mk 1:1-8

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.6.20_Homily_Combined.mp3

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

“Comfort, give comfort to my people,” God tells Isaiah today in the first reading. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Proclaim to her that …her guilt is expiated. … Go up on to a high mountain [and] cry out at the top of your voice … ‘Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God. … Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gather the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care.”

The message of Advent is a message of consolation. God is coming with power to expiate our guilt. He’s coming as a Shepherd to feed us, to gather us into his arms, to go in search for us when we’re lost and carry us back on his shoulders. He’s coming ultimately to die for us as a Good Shepherd who lays down his life to save the lives of his sheep. But this action of God is not the only movement of Advent: we need to be ready for this coming of the Lord and go out to meet him. We need to be awake, alert and willing to receive his gift of expiation. We need to open ourselves to the consolation God came, still comes, and will come definitely into the world to bring.

The one sent to help us to get ready to receive this gift is St. John the Baptist. Every year on the second and third Sundays of Advent, the Church leads us on pilgrimage to the Jordan River, so that we might enroll anew in St. John the Baptist’s school, hear his message and put it into action in our life. John was chosen by God the Father from all eternity to get his people ready to receive His Son, who at the time John was preaching was already in a sense walking toward the Jordan River to inaugurate his public ministry. Advent literally means “coming toward” and St. John the Baptist has the mission to get us ready to go out to embrace the Lord who is coming to us in history in Bethlehem, in mystery especially through the Sacraments, and in majesty on the clouds of heaven. And the way John seeks to help us to get ready to embrace Jesus who is coming is through is deep, total, sincere conversion.

In the Second Reading today, St. Peter talks to us about patience. Normally, in Advent, we focus on patiently waiting in hope for the fulfillment of God’s presence. But the patience about which he speaks is God’s patience. “The Lord,” he says, “is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” He does not delay his promise as some regard ‘delay,’ Peter says, as if he’s ready. He delays because we’re not yet ready. We have not yet come to repentance. That’s why the annual work of St. John the Baptist is so important.

St. Mark tells us that John the Baptist appeared in the desert “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” and the people were responding in huge numbers. The whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized “as they acknowledged their sins.” Dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey, he was proclaiming a message of repentance and reparation not just with his words but with his body language. St. Mark sees him as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy from the first reading, “I am sending my messenger ahead of you to prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths.’” John was not the one crying out in the desert,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Agnes Church, Manhattan

Second Sunday of Advent, Extraordinary Form

December 6, 2020

Rom 15:4-13, Mt 11:2-10

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.6.20_EF_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

“Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?” That’s the question St. John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus in today’s Gospel and that’s the question we, too, need to confront with seriousness in faith. If Jesus is the long-desired fulfillment of all of the Messianic prophecies, then everything else should be relativized and we should cling to him, and his word, with all our mind, heart, soul and strength. If he is the one we’ve been waiting for, then John would ask, “What are we waiting for?” in order to put him absolutely front and center, first, supreme in our life, and follow him, live in his kingdom, rejoice in his presence, and share that great news with others.

The answer to the question that John has his disciples and the Church pose, like Jesus’ question at Caesarea Philippi, “Who do you say that I am?,” is really the most consequential question of our life. It’s a question we cannot answer in a merely intellectual way. If Jesus really is the one, if he truly is the Messiah and Son of God, then we shouldn’t be looking for anyone or anything else, we shouldn’t be hedging our bets on the way we live, we shouldn’t be procrastinating on making a definitive commitment, but go all in. While there may be some “searchers” here among us this morning — and if you are, please know how welcome you are, with your questions about Jesus, the Church, Catholic worship and more, and how honored we would be to help you find the answers for which you’re searching — I would venture to say that most of us are here because we believe that Jesus is the one. As an intellectual act of faith, we confess that he is exactly whom the Church teaches he is, the incarnate Son of the Eternal Father, the God man born of the Virgin Mary, the King of the Universe. But faith is not just an intellectual act, but also an existential one. It’s an entrusting of one’s whole being to God and a staking of one’s entire life on what God has revealed. And while our mind says with the certainty of faith, “Jesus is the one and there is no other,” the question St. John the Baptist poses is deeper than that: he is asking whether our whole life, like his, attests to that fact.

That’s why each year on the second and the third Sunday of Advent, the lectionaries of both the extraordinary and ordinary form of the Roman Rite always focus on the figure of the precursor Domini, the forerunner of the Lord, St. John the Baptist. Today Jesus identifies him as the one about whom the Prophets Isaiah and Malachi said, “Behold I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare the way before you.” John’s work was to prepare the way for Jesus and then to point him out when at last he came. He did the latter first in the womb, leaping for joy at Christ’s in utero presence. He did it when Jesus came to him at the Jordan River and John exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!,” leading Saints Andrew and John the Evangelist to leave the Baptist and follow Christ. And he did it in the scene we have in today’s Gospel.

John sends the disciples who were clinging to him when he was imprisoned by Herod to go to visit Jesus, who was performing all of the works Isaiah had preannounced the Messiah would accomplish, to ask whether he was their long-awaited one, whether their long Advent was over, or whether they should look for someone else. Jesus asked them to discern via the signs he was performing,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Saint Andrew’s Church, Manhattan

Leonine Forum NYC Advent Day of Recollection

Saturday of the First Week of Advent

December 5, 2020

Is 30:19-21.23-26, Ps 147, Mt 9:35-1:1.5-8

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.20_Leonine_Forum_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* We’ve been focusing all week on what is easily and helpfully describable as the “double-dynamism” of Advent: Christ’s coming to us in history, mystery and majesty and our going out to meet him. But neither Jesus’ nor our movement stops there. After the encounter, we are called to journey with Jesus, going forth united with him to continue and fulfill his messianic mission of salvation. Today’s readings help us to focus on all three of these Advent movements.

* The first movement concerns Christ’s reasons and sentiments coming into the world. They’re aptly summarized in today’s Gospel: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” These words not only describe why Jesus “went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness,” but also why he came into our world in the first place. He looked at us and saw that we were mangled and abandoned, lost, in need of God’s guidance and God’s healing, and he entered the world as our Shepherd to protect us from the wolves and to call us by name to follow him through dark valleys into the verdant pastures of his sheepfold. He was the fulfillment of what Isaiah had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy in today’s first reading: “He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or to the left.” Jesus would be the Answer to, and the Answerer of, our prayers. He would give us not only our material bread but become our Living Bread to feed us. He would not only quench our physical thirsts but becoming our Living Water so that we would never thirst again (Jn 4:13-14). He would assume our human nature so that we could see our Teacher and be able to learn not only from his words but most especially by following his example. And his words and example would attune our consciences to hear his voice speaking to us from within, “This is the way; walk in it,” because we would have observed his path, heard him say, “I am the way,” and be moved inwardly to follow in his footsteps. That’s the dynamism of the Lord’s coming to us in history, mystery and majesty.

* The second movement is for us to go out to meet him who is coming to us in this way, with these sentiments. It’s to go out with eagerness, with our prayers to be heard, with our hunger and thirst for more of what God alone can give, with our need for a Shepherd to guide us, with a passion for his proclamation of the Good News, his teaching about how to live it and his healing, especially the much needed healing of our souls. On Monday, the Prophet Isaiah will tell us that this path Jesus will come into our world to indicate is a special one: it’s a highway called “the holy way.” And Isaiah says it has several characteristics: First, “no one unclean may pass over it:” It’s not only for those who desire holiness, but those who have been cleansed; God’s mercy, in other words, precedes our repentance, our making straight the paths.

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent (B)

December 5, 2020

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.20_Landry_ConCon.m4a

 

The text that guided the homily is: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation God wants to have with us this Sunday.

* Last week, on the first Sunday of Advent, we began a new year in the Church. Advent is a time of spiritual reawakening and renewal, a call to get up, get excited and get moving toward Jesus who never ceases to come to us. But to have this life-changing encounter with Jesus, we first have to confront and overcome the obstacles that might be in the way between the Lord and us. The biggest barrier of all is our sins and the way we hold on to them rather than allow the Lord Jesus to take them away.

* That’s why, on the Second Sunday of Advent each year, in order to help us make a totally fresh start, God sends us the same person he sent to get the people of Israel ready to encounter, embrace and follow his Son Jesus when Jesus finally revealed himself at the Jordan River. St. John the Baptist announces for us anew, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” And he tells us what’s involved in that road repair: repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

* In the ancient world, the dirt roads were a mess. Every time there was a battle, the roads would be attacked and bridges destroyed, to try to stop the advance of the enemy. The weather took its toll as well, leading to all types of potholes and other obstacles. Any time a dignitary would be coming, they would have either to fix the roads or build new ones so that the rolling caravan accompanying the VIP could arrive without delay or hassle. St. John the Baptist is telling us that to get ready for the Lord who is coming this Advent, we, too, need to prepare a road for him. We, too, need to make straight the paths.

* 2000 years ago, preparing such a path meant a great deal of work, making crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth, and even charting paths through the forests, mountains and valleys. For us, that pathway will not be traced on the ground, but interiorly. It will not be made in the wilderness, but in day-to-day life. It’s not something that will make our hands dirty, but our souls clean. St. John the Baptist indicated the necessary road repair quoting the prophet Isaiah: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth” (Lk 3:5). He’s calling us to level the mountains of our pride and egocentrism, to fill in the valleys that come from a shallow prayer life and a minimalistic way of living our faith, and to straighten out whatever crooked, sinful paths we’ve been walking. This work won’t be accomplished principally by willpower and elbow grease, but by God’s power and amazing grace. The way we receive this help of God to cleanse the path between Jesus and us of the worst obstacles of all is the Sacrament of Confession. We need to be as attentive clearing the way for Christ through this Sacrament as highway workers are to removing dead deer from the high-speed lane.

* We can focus on two witnesses who show us that straight path. On Tuesday, December 8, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady. Mary lived at the culmination of that first Advent, longing with her fellow Jews for the Messiah and then, after the Annunciation, welcoming that Messiah within her womb. She was prepared by God for that Mission through God’s keeping her free from all stain of sin from the firs...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

St. Andrew’s Church, Manhattan

Leonine Forum Advent Day of Recollection

December 5, 2020

 

To listen to the first meditation, dedicated to Advent Lessons from the Blessed Virgin Mary, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.20_Advent_Lessons_from_the_BVM_1.mp3

 

To listen to the second meditation, dedicated to Advent Lessons from Saint Joseph, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.20_Advent_Lessons_from_St._Joseph_1.mp3

 

To listen to the homily from Mass for Saturday of the First Week of Advent that concluded the Day of Recollection, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.20_Leonine_Forum_Homily_1.mp3

 

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Saturday of the First Week of Advent

December 5, 2020

Is 30:19-21.23-26, Ps 147, Mt 9:35-1:1.5-8

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.5.20_Homily.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* We’ve been focusing all week on what is easily and helpfully describable as the “double-dynamism” of Advent: Christ’s coming to us in history, mystery and majesty and our going out to meet him. But neither Jesus’ nor our movement stops there. After the encounter, we are called to journey with Jesus, going forth united with him to continue and fulfill his messianic mission of salvation. Today’s readings help us to focus on all three of these Advent movements.

* The first movement concerns Christ’s reasons and sentiments coming into the world. They’re aptly summarized in today’s Gospel: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” These words not only describe why Jesus “went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing every disease and illness,” but also why he came into our world in the first place. He looked at us and saw that we were mangled and abandoned, lost, in need of God’s guidance and God’s healing, and he entered the world as our Shepherd to protect us from the wolves and to call us by name to follow him through dark valleys into the verdant pastures of his sheepfold. He was the fulfillment of what Isaiah had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy in today’s first reading: “He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, while from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or to the left.” Jesus would be the Answer to, and the Answerer of, our prayers. He would give us not only our material bread but become our Living Bread to feed us. He would not only quench our physical thirsts but becoming our Living Water so that we would never thirst again (Jn 4:13-14). He would assume our human nature so that we could see our Teacher and be able to learn not only from his words but most especially by following his example. And his words and example would attune our consciences to hear his voice speaking to us from within, “This is the way; walk in it,” because we would have observed his path, heard him say, “I am the way,” and be moved inwardly to follow in his footsteps. That’s the dynamism of the Lord’s coming to us in history, mystery and majesty.

* The second movement is for us to go out to meet him who is coming to us in this way, with these sentiments. It’s to go out with eagerness, with our prayers to be heard, with our hunger and thirst for more of what God alone can give, with our need for a Shepherd to guide us, with a passion for his proclamation of the Good News, his teaching about how to live it and his healing, especially the much needed healing of our souls. On Monday, the Prophet Isaiah will tell us that this path Jesus will come into our world to indicate is a special one: it’s a highway called “the holy way.” And Isaiah says it has several characteristics: First, “no one unclean may pass over it:” It’s not only for those who desire holiness, but those who have been cleansed; God’s mercy, in other words, precedes our repentance, our making straight the paths. Second, it’s “for those with a journey to make”; it’s not...

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Friday of the First Week of Advent

Memorial of St. John Damascene

December 4, 2020

Is 29:17-24, Ps 27, Mt 9:27-31

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.4.20_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

* We encounter again today the double-dynamism of Lent: Christ’s coming in the past, present and future — history, mystery and majesty — and the way the Church has been teaching us how we’re called to go out to meet him in each of these three moments and be so transformed by him that we will follow him thereafter.

* Today Christ was passing by two blind men who had gone out to meet him, crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” But then Jesus had them journey to encounter him physically. It would have been easy for Jesus just to go to them where they were — like he stopped for the woman with the hemorrhage elsewhere in the Gospel — and work the miracle there. But he went into the city to make them make the effort to follow him. When they do, that’s when Jesus approaches and asks them the question of faith, “Do you believe that I can do this for you?” When they express their faith, Jesus helps them to see. This is a pattern we see throughout the Gospel. Jesus could have been born right next to the Shepherds, but instead he comes down from heaven to Bethlehem and has them move some distance to run by faith. Two days ago, we witnessed Jesus’ multiplying the loaves and fish, which began with his having all of the people bringing him the lame, the blind and those with illnesses climb a mountain before they received their miraculous cures. He comes, but he still makes us get up and go to meet him, to stoke our faith and our desire.This is a very important spiritual lesson both for Advent and for life. Jesus with his mercy comes to us in history, mystery and majesty but we have to recognize our need for it and be willing to make the effort to come to receive it. Like St. John the Baptist will announce this Sunday, we need to make straight the paths.

* Jesus’ messianic work can be summarized by healing our blindness. The Season of Advent can be encapsulated by God’s desire to give us the vision to walk by the light of faith. In the first reading, Isaiah tells us, “On that day … out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see,” and we need to see ourselves among the blind whom the Savior comes to heal. I remember one talk at the UN a few years ago during conversations on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A former Ambassador, now disabled, spoke about how when we think about the disabled, we ought to be thinking not just about “others” but also about ourselves. He said that if we live long enough, we’re going to start to have eye problems, need hearing aids, end up using canes and handicapped ramps and wheelchairs, and may likewise be dependent on so many things that today we take for granted. He said we need to remember that all of us will one day be handicapped. What is true at a physical level is certainly true spiritually. We’re all to some degree spiritually blind, incapable of seeing God where we ought. We’re deaf to his frequency with regard to many of the things he’s trying to say to us. Even though we can walk, fear cripples us from walking in certain directions. Jesus wants to address all of those as he comes, but we need to learn from the blind men how to cry out for mercy and long to see with the eyes of faith Jesus whenever, wherever and however he comes.

* The Lord to whom we need to look, to whom we direct that prayer, the Messiah who will make the eyes of the blind see, is,

Fr. Roger J. Landry

Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Thursday of the First Week of Advent

Memorial of St. Francis Xavier

December 3, 2020

Is 26:1-6, Ps 118, Mt 7:21.24-27

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/12.3.20_Homily_1.mp3

 

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* At the beginning of the Advent Season, as we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “O Come, Divine Messiah!,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” the Church selects Gospel passages to help us learn the proper dispositions to enter into the meaning of this season and get off to a good start in this new liturgical year. But it’s not enough to get us to cry out with hunger and longing to bid the Lord to come. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us very clearly, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” We need to build our life on him as he comes. “The Lord is an eternal Rock,” Isaiah tells us today. The Psalm adds, “The Lord is God and he has given us light.” The Lord is the solid, stable, unchanging foundation for life, the God who not only is “Light from Light,” but shares that light with us so that we may walk as children of light. Isaiah will tell us on Christmas night that the “people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” and that light is the Lord. Our Advent construction project is to build our life on that rock who gives us that light.

* Jesus uses an image today, taken from his conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, about how we’re supposed to live what he teaches. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” That’s what our response is supposed to be to Jesus’ triple coming: to build our life on his taking on our humanity so that we may share in his divinity; to construct our existence on Him in the present, in his Word and in especially in the Word-made-flesh as the source and summit, the root and center of Christian life; and to ground our hopes, aspirations and daily choices in the guarantee of his second coming and to live, as we’re reminded to live each Advent, vigilant and alert each day for his return. Not everyone lives this way. Many are foolish: we hear his Word, we may even be able to cite chapter and verse, but we don’t act on it. Jesus says, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” The true Advent response is Mary’s, which, as we will hear on the Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception next Tuesday, in response to the Archangel Gabriel’s words, said, “Behold I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be done to me according to your Word!”

* To build our whole existence on Jesus requires great trust, because Jesus’ words are different than the world’s. It’s challenging to build our life on the word of forgiving seventy time seven times, to love our enemies, to love others as God infinitely loves us. It’s hard to build our life on the commandments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and especially the Beatitudes. But hard is not impossible. And God gives us himself to make the difficulty lighter and sweeter. God encourages us to do so today. “Trust in the Lord forever!,” God calls us through Isaiah. “A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.” The Psalm adds, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

Fr. Roger J. LandryVisitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

December 2, 2020

Is 25:6-10, Ps 23, Mt 15:29-37

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

The following points were attempted in the homily:

* Today the two main coordinates of Advent intersect. The first is that Advent is a double-dynamism: Christ comes to us and we are called not to stay where we are but to go out to meet him. The second is that there’s a triple meaning to Christ’s Advent or coming: his coming in history (Bethlehem), in mystery (prayer and the sacraments) and in majesty (at the end of time or end of our time on earth). Today we see these two sets of coordinates, these two principal ways of understanding Advent, intersect in the readings the Church gives us.

* First we see the double-dynamism. In the Gospel, Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and then up a mountain where he waited for the vast crowds to follow him. It would have been much easier for him to stay at the sea shore, but he wanted to have the people make an effort to climb a hill to be with him. Through his incarnation, he came near to us because he wanted to make the encounter with us easy. On the other hand, he didn’t want to make it too easy. He wants us to work a little. He wants us to overcome our inertia. He wants to train us in little ways to be faithful to the pilgrimage of earthy life which is an uphill Way of the Cross following in his footsteps. We see a similar theme at work in the Responsorial Psalm. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, calls us by name and leads us into dark valleys, where we’re called to follow him on the path to verdant pastures where he will give us repose. Jesus doesn’t take us by a short cut or an easy route. Dark valleys can be frightening. But it’s by journeying through them following Jesus that we grow in faith.

* And we see in the readings what Jesus prepares for us when we catch up to him on the mountain for the encounter. He gives us a banquet. Isaiah tells us in the first reading that this is mountain banquet features “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” In the psalm we see that the Good Shepherd “spreads the table” before us and makes our “cup overflow.” And in the Gospel we see the first of three fulfillments of these prophecies when Jesus feeds the crowd of four thousand with seven buns and a few fish. This is one of two miracles of the multiplication of the loaves and fish (the other was a crowd of five thousand, when Jesus multiplied five buns and two fish and the leftovers of which filled twelve baskets, more than the seven baskets here). St. John called this miracle a “sign,” meaning that it points to another banquet. The first banquet signified is when Jesus would take bread and wine in the Upper Room and totally change them into the richest food and choicest wine ever known, his own Body and Blood. But even that was a sign pointing to the eternal wedding banquet, for which the Eucharist is a foretaste.

* The encounter with Christ after his Advent and our movement happens, as we see, in a three-fold banquet. The first banquet is the actual multiplication of the loaves and fish in history. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a place that means “house of bread,” and he is the Father’s answer to the prayer Jesus put on our lips, “Give us today our daily bread.” The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish is the first fulfillment of Isaiah’s and Psalm 23’s prophecy. The second fulfillment is in mystery, in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the perpetuated Last Supper through time. The third is fulfilled in majesty, in the eternal wedding banquet. In Advent we prepare for each of these three banquets. Christ comes to set the table for us in each of these three ways and we’re called to go out to meet him at all three, in a sense simultaneously.