IV — THE INVITATION TO THE BANQUET

Sunday within the octave of Corpus Domini

Presence of God. — O Jesus, grant me always to answer your invitation and to participate worthily in your banquet.

Meditation

1 — This Sunday’s Gospel is perfectly attuned to the octave of Corpus Domini. “A man made a great supper and invited many.” The man who gives the supper is God; and the great supper is his kingdom, where souls will find every abundance of spiritual goods here below and eternal happiness in the life to come. This is the proper sense of the parable; but nothing forbids understanding it also in a more particular sense, seeing in the supper the Eucharistic Banquet and in the man who sets it Jesus, who invites men to feed on his Flesh and his Blood. “The Lord’s table is prepared for us” sings the Office of the octave; “Wisdom [that is, the Incarnate Word] has prepared the wine and has spread the table.” Jesus Himself, announcing the Eucharist, addressed his invitation to all: “I am the bread of life! He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died. This is the bread come down from heaven, that whoever eats of it may not die” (Jn. 6:35-50). Jesus does not limit Himself, like other men, to setting a supper, making broad invitations, nor even to preparing exquisite foods; but the most singular fact - which no man, however rich and powerful, can ever imitate - is that He offers Himself as food. To one who in the Eucharist would like to see Christ with bodily eyes, St. John Chrysostom says: “Well then, you see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him. You desire to see his garments; He grants you not only to see Him, but even to eat Him, to touch Him, and to receive Him within yourself... What Angels behold with trembling and cannot gaze upon freely because of its dazzling splendor becomes our nourishment: we unite ourselves to it and become with Christ one body and one flesh” (Roman Breviary, lessons V and VI).

2 — Jesus could not offer man a table richer than the Eucharistic banquet. And in what way do men respond to his invitation to this table? Many, like unbelieving Jews, shrug their shoulders and go away with a skeptical smile on their lips: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn. 6:53). But what keeps one far from the Eucharist is not only lack of faith; this is often accompanied and indeed not rarely derived from those moral causes spoken of in today’s Gospel. “I have bought a field and I must go see it; I ask you, excuse me,” answered one; and another: “I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them; I ask you, excuse me.” Excessive concern for earthly goods, attachment to them, total engrossment in business, is the reason why so many refuse Jesus’ invitation. But that is not all: “I have taken a wife, and therefore I cannot come,” answers a third, and he represents those who, immersed in pleasures of the senses, have lost sensitivity to things of the spirit and before them walk straight on, without even trying to excuse themselves.

It is impossible not to shudder before man’s enormous blindness, putting Christ’s gift, Bread of Angels and pledge of eternal life, after earthly interests and vile pleasures of the senses that soon vanish like mist in the sun. Yet it is not difficult that a shadow of this blindness may also veil the gaze and heart of those whom Jesus has called to follow Him more closely and has designated by the sweet name of friends. These do not refuse the invitation, but often accept it coldly, almost by habit. Is it not true that, while we concern ourselves with many things - work, business, family, friendships, etc. - we concern ourselves very little with disposing ourselves each day in the worthiest way for the Eucharistic Banquet? Jesus comes into us perhaps every morning, but does He always find there a warm, delicate, attentive hospitality, full of love? Oh, too often He finds the hearts of his friends occupied with a thousand thoughts, trifles, and earthly affections, while for Him, the divine Guest, very little room remains! Yet the place should be all his; yet the thought of daily meeting with Eucharistic Jesus should be at the summit of every other thought!

Colloquy

“O Sacrament of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! Whoever wants to live has where to live, has from where to live. O Lord, I will approach your table with faith, incorporating myself there to be vivified by it.

“Grant, Lord, that I may be inebriated by the abundance of your house and give me drink from the torrent of your delights. For with You is the source of my life: nowhere else outside You, but there with You is the source of life. There I wish to drink in order to live; I do not want to make for myself as though to lose myself, I do not want to satisfy myself from my own as though to dry up; but I want to bring my mouth to the source where the water does not fail.

“I will remove vain and evil excuses and approach the supper that must inwardly fatten me. Let not the loftiness of pride hold me back: no, let not haughtiness make me proud; nor let unlawful curiosity stop me, drawing me away from You; let not carnal delight prevent me from tasting spiritual delight.

“Grant that I may approach and be filled; let me approach, though beggar, weak, lame, and blind. To your supper do not come rich and healthy men, who think they walk well and have keen sight, men very presumptuous of themselves and therefore all the more incurable the prouder they are. I shall approach as a beggar, because You invite me, You who from rich became poor for me, so that your poverty might enrich my beggary. I shall approach as weak, because the healthy have no need of a physician, but the sick. I shall approach as lame and say to You: ‘Do You direct my steps in your paths.’ I shall approach as blind, and say to You: ‘Enlighten my eyes, that I may never sleep the sleep of death’” (St. Augustine).