Homily for Advent 3
December 13, 2025
Feast of Feasts
Both our
opening prayer and our prayer after Communion speak about “feasts”. But what is
a feast, and what makes it different from a party? I turned to The Google for
the answer: feasts are elaborate, often-ritualized meals with special food that
celebrates an occasion. For example, every Thanksgiving feast includes turkey,
even if you’d rather have pizza (and do not try to put turkey on pizza. That
would be an unspeakable abomination). By contrast, a party is a gathering for
entertainment and socialization. It may have food but that’s not the main
purpose, unlike a feast. And it can just be for fun – it doesn’t need to
commemorate an event.
In our
Judeo-Christian tradition, there are three main Feasts we celebrate. The first
is the Jewish feast of Passover. It’s a rough feast – the food is not anyone’s
idea of delightful. We had a Passover Seder meal in class at CKA a few weeks
back, and when it came time to eat the bitter herbs dipped in salt water, there
were more than a few grimaces…and even some kids politely spitting it out! Of
course, that food is richly symbolic of the bitterness of Israel’s slavery in
Egypt and the tears they shed, since the feast commemorates when God led them
from slavery to freedom.
But that
feast is fulfilled – we now have a newer, better Feast – the Holy Eucharist.
We, too, take special food – not bread and wine, but the very Body and Blood of
God! And it, too, commemorates an earth-shattering event – the death and
Resurrection of Christ.
But what
we do here at Mass will not be the final feast. Heaven is referred to as the
“Wedding Feast of the Lamb” – when God and the human race are finally united
like bride and groom. Isaiah refers to this heavenly banquet in delicious
terms: a feast of “juicy, rich food and pure, choice wine.” And this feast will
commemorate the final victory of God over sin and death forever, as the entire
universe is renewed in Him.
So, to
sum up, the first feast of Passover is no more – it does not need to be
celebrated because God has done something greater in Redemption. We celebrate
that second feast at every Mass, remembering what God did for us in His death
and Resurrection, but we look forward to that third feast of the Banquet Feast of
the Lamb in eternal life, for God’s greatest work has yet to be done – the
final victory.
Why do I
bring this up during Advent? We often call Advent a “season of waiting” – but
not just waiting for Christmas – it’s about waiting for that final victory, waiting
for the final Feast of everlasting life. Listen to the prayers at today’s Mass
– in a few short moments we will be praying, “Complete what was begun in us in
sacred mystery (aka, in the Sacraments, which do effect a change in us that is
real but invisible), and powerfully accomplish for us Your saving work (in
other words, bring about that final victory over sin and death).” A bit later,
in the Preface (the prayer which introduces the Eucharistic Prayer), we
pray: “When He comes again in glory and majesty, and all is at last made
manifest, we who watch for that day (aka, the day of His final triumph) may
inherit the great promise in which we now dare to hope (eternal life)”.
Advent
prompts us to consider the connection between Christmas and this great Feast of
the Eucharist. For example, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town which means
“House of Bread”, and He was laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals.
Christmas celebrates the Incarnation, when God became man…the Eucharist
continues the Incarnation, when God became bread. Even the name, “Christmas”,
comes from “Christ’s Mass”!
In 1263,
a German priest was traveling through Italy and stopped in a small town called
Orvieto to celebrate Mass. He was struggling to believe in Jesus’ True Presence
in the Eucharist, but as he held up the Eucharist, it began to bleed all over
the corporal (the cloth used on the altar). The Bishop was notified, who then
told the Pope. The Pope, amazed at the Eucharistic miracle, decided to add a
feast to the Church year – the feast of Corpus Christi, which we celebrate in
June, honoring the Body and Blood of the Lord.
For this
new feast, the Pope asked two saints to compose hymns to the Eucharist: the
Dominican priest St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Franciscan priest St. Bonaventure.
The story goes that both of them came to the Pope with their hymns, and Aquinas
went first. After reading his aloud, St. Bonaventure ripped his to shreds,
realizing that he couldn’t come close to the genius of this Doctor of the
Church.
One of the
hymns he wrote for the Feast Day of Corpus Christi is called “O Sacrum
Convivium,” O Sacred Banquet. Here are the words:
How
holy this feast
in
which Christ Himself is our food;
His
passion is recalled;
grace
fills our hearts;
and
we receive a pledge of the glory to come.
What we
do here at this Mass is indeed a Feast to surpass all Feasts: we feast on God
Himself…we recall His mightiest work of Redemption…and we receive grace. But
even this Feast pales in comparison with the coming Wedding Feast of the Lamb
in eternity, when all Sacraments will be taken away because we see Him
face-to-face, when He completes His victorious work.
And so,
during Advent we wait…not just for Christmas, but for Heaven. And that’s why
we’re joyful on this third Sunday of Advent – we’re going to a Banquet – where
the lame are healed, the blind see, the despairing have hope, the spiritually
dead will be raised to life.
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