PHOTO: Mary van Balen
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food…And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples…Then the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.” Is 25:6a,7a,8a9b.10 (from today;s Mass readings)
Both the first reading and the gospel from today’s Mass present a warm and compelling picture of our God. Everything about the two accounts pulls us toward the Lord who is generous beyond anything we have experienced. I read these passages and think: “I want to be there.” This God is irresistible.
Hope stirs in my heart that begins to beat faster. Can there be such a place? Does such a God exist? No hunger, physical or emotional. No strife, no tears, no shame. All is forgiven and healed in one immense embrace of Love.
Twice in my recent past, I have been graced with a taste of what is to come. Odd as this may seem to some, one of the places that came to mind as I sat with these passages was a beach house in Thailand. I had been visiting with a friend who had gone there for medical treatment, and since a number of the doctor’s patients were Christians from the western hemisphere, he threw a party for us on Christmas.
“For you, this is a feast of love,” he said, ” and you are far away from your family and friends. So tonight, we will be your family and we will celebrate together.” And celebrate we did. The good Buddhist doctor, his family, staff, and friends, through a party for those who had come for physical healing. The food was unending as was the love and compassion shown to all. I still can feel the warmth and embrace of our Thai friends and friends we had met from around the world. I would return.
The second place that exuded acceptance, warmth, and community is the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical & Cultural Research. When I arrived for the academic year, exhausted in all ways, I was given the time, space, and support that helped restore my physical, emotional, and spiritual self. The setting, was serene and beautiful, as I imagine were the mountain settings in the Scripture readings. While there, I joined with Benedictine communities of monks and nuns in worship and prayer.
As deeply transforming as both of these experiences were, they were but a glimpse of what God has in store for each of us, for all of us together. Matthew;s gospel presents another encounter with Jesus that makes my heart yearn within me:
“Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and may others. They laid them at his feet, and he cured them…he took the seven loaves and fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled…” Mt 15:29-30; 36-37
I once read a book, “The Secret Life of Bees,” that made me want to “go there” to find the fictional home of August Boatwright and make it home for awhile. The draw was the same and as ancient as that found in the Scriptures, in the Buddhist doctor’s actions, and the CIECR’s community: Holy Love. unconditional and poured out on everyone, salving our human hurts and wounds. Food, the kind you eat as well as the kind you draw in through your skin, that fills the empty places within.
Advent is a time of anticipation: Jesus has come to show us the way home to the place that exceeds our most extravagant imagining of all that is good. He came once and walked with us on the earth; he comes now, through others; and he will come again, to show us the way home into the embrace we long for. The place that will finally fill us up.
©2010 Mary van Balen
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