28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 1 Is 25:6-10a; 2Phil:4:12-14, 19-20; Mt. 22:1-14
You may wonder why I have been MIA the past few weeks. I would not call it missing in action but more like growing spiritual wings. For the past few weeks we have been on a pilgrimage to Spain, France, and Portugal in a bus load of pilgrims going from one spiritual mountain to another. When the Lord says today that he “will provide a feast of rich food and choice wines and destroy the veil that veils all people” we were blessed to be in the King’s banquet celebrating the wedding feast of heaven and earth. Your senses become filled with the awareness of divine life you can taste, see, touch, smell, listen and feel God’s presence. From the simple “humble circumstances” of the Fatima children’s home to the “abundance” of magnificent cathedrals but so much more to be fed and to hunger for.
The pilgrimage was sponsored by EWTN and we found out that they had considered canceling the trip because not many had signed up. Then suddenly they had more requests than they planned on taking and did a novena to consider adding to the number. You would think it being EWTN “no problem” and yet we see in today’s gospel how our natural tendency is to “miss out” on the invitation we receive every day to come to the banquet of the Lord in Mass, in taking time to open the Bible, to pray, to gather together in fellowship, to join in on the spiritual “fast lane” that lives each moment in the presence of the King, on the mountain where he “wipes away the tears from every face” bringing us his comforter, the Holy Spirit, his own body and blood in the Eucharist, “the feast is ready”.
Do you recall the story of the butterfly that learns to fly by breaking out of its cocoon? If you release it before it won’t fly because it has not gained the strength in its wings to fly. It is in the struggle of life where our spiritual muscle prepares itself for the banquet. Life is a pilgrimage. Sometimes we simply adapt to life in the cocoon and forget there is a greater feast waiting if we will work our spiritual muscle to break out. A pilgrimage is an invitation to place aside all the concerns of life’s demands and build our spiritual muscle. The first step of a pilgrimage is to believe and accept in faith the word spoken today, “My God will fully supply whatever you need in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus”. About a month before departure my health started to decline having severe headaches, UGI problems, and a choking incident to add to the history of health concerns already on my medication list. Spiritually I felt attacked and tested as in the story of Job where God allows his servant to undergo a series of trials and the devil took advantage of the opportunity. You question the unknown but you also surrender in trust to God’s providence and make an offering of all of it to God for his purpose.
On the human level you must humble yourself to journey with a group of often strangers in more tight quarters like a bus hoping everyone remembered their deodorant. You use muscles that had been sheltered for years and now have to walk for miles a day with water and backpacks. You prepare prayerfully but also sacrificially because the hour has come for the banquet and you want to live it fully. The following is just to share a taste of it with you.
We arrived in Barcelona to see and experience the Sagrada Familia Basilica, a work of faith started by one man, Antonio Gaudi, an architect 135 years ago not expected to be completed until 2026. He knew he would not live to finish it but built his architectural genius of models for others to follow and to celebrate mass within this G-enormous beauty was a blessing.
We found ourselves also at a Benedictine Monastery in Monserrat among mountains so high it takes a cable car to get to the top surrounded by rock formations and in awe of how faith leads souls to worship so high you are looking down at the clouds below you. There in prayer before our Lady of Montserrat which tradition says St. Luke carved the statue of the virgin around 50 A.D. Next to descend and follow the footsteps of St. Bernadette and to enter the waters of Lourdes. On a cold rainy day you strip down and are wrapped by a thick plastic colder than ice and you have not even stepped into the water yet. There immersed in the healing waters in our nakedness before the G-enormous power from above. While I was in my humanity all wrapped up in my clothes and jacket I wondered about the shivering or getting sick only to experience the healing warmth, freedom, and peace of grace that came from the spiritual immersion. In this moment I lived the words we hear today, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me”. In the past I have walked barefoot on hot coals, and have walked on shattered glass barefoot but those were only human experiences of the gift of the mind over matter. The gift of faith, hope, and love is far beyond any power of our own. It is the gift of holiness even as a sinner we are invited into the banquet of saints. To be among the thousands who come in candlelight procession in Exposition of Eucharistic worship is another feast juicy, rich and pure.
The pilgrimage was to mark the 100th Anniversary of Fatima and it greeted us with the G-enormous Rosary lighted up at night. In the concelebration of the mass I was the only deacon so I was honored to assist at the altar. These shepherd children lived in humble circumstances yet our Lady called them to be visible signs of God’ desire for prayer and a chapel to be built. Today that prayer of the rosary surrounds the world and the little chapel is a major site of worship. Jacinta and Francisco are already among the youngest children declared saints and in God’s divine providence before the 100th anniversary he called Lucia to heaven at the age of 97. It was said she was not ill but picked up a cold that was going around the convent and at the moment of death she declared “it is time for us to go”. She looked around the room to all who were spiritually there the take her, not “time for me to go” but for “us to go”. I can only imagine the joy of Jacinta, Francisco, her guardian angel, and even our Lady opening the doors of heaven.
This was a long banquet and more servings to come. We visited the Cathedral of St. James and his crypt and relics. This time we had a concelebration of the Mass at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela with the local Bishop. I was again given the honor to assist at the Mass both in proclaiming the Word and assisting at the altar. Here they have this G-enormous thurible known as the famous Botafumeiro a censor that weighs 53 kg and is 1.5 meters wide hanging from 20 meters and taking eight men to swing it from pulleys.
We visited the Carmelite Monastery where St. Teresa of Avila died in 1582 and is buried. This first woman Doctor of the Church and witnessed her incorruptible heart and arm that are made visible through glass containers. While the banquet had more servings I have left off the one main serving. Each day we celebrated Mass and had an opportunity for adoration hour.
We were also given the opportunity to visit the Shrine of the Most Holy Miracle of Santarem. In 1247, a poor woman living in Santarem consulted a sorceress who asked her to bring her a consecrated host. The woman received the host in her mouth and carefully took it out and wrapped it in her veil. As she left the church drops of blood began to drip from her veil. In fear she ran home, hid the Holy Sacrament and spent the night in prayer with her husband. The next day she informed the parish priest and it was taken in procession to the Church of St. Stephen, placed in the tabernacle in a small case of wax. Later when the Tabernacle was opened another miracle happened, the wax case was found broken and the Holy Sacrament encased in a beautiful crystal pyx. This pyx is now visible is a gold-plated silver monstrance to be seen daily. In 1997, the Church of St. Stephen was consecrated as the Most Holy Miracle of Church of Santarem. The miracle of the body and blood of Jesus is inviting us daily to receive him and we don’t have to go to Santarem to witness it. Today we receive him. The God-enormous reality lives with us and in us but we must be open to the faith and live this day as our pilgrim day, our miracle day.
Now for desert, well I must admit I gained six pounds but I also lost an inch on my belt from all the walking. There was food we have never tasted before and cannot truly give it justice to describe. Each day was a feast, a true banquet only a King can serve and we were blessed to be invited to the table.
Some may say you don’t need to go on a pilgrimage. God is here present always for us. The second part of the statement I agree with. God is present and most present in the Eucharist. Life also is a daily pilgrimage on our journey and call to heaven. The G-enormous life in Christ is open to us for healing, love, and peace. I am also reminded of scripture where the man with leprosy was tested to go in search of healing and accept the challenge of washing in the waters seven times and his skin became like that of a child. God is pleased by our acts of faith, our sacrifices, and our desire to trust him to follow the path he is opening for us to go forth where he leads us. The miracle of the sun lives today but it is the miracle of the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. Our Lady invites us to pray daily the rosary in reparation for sins. The hearts of three children and many others called to follow lives of sanctity includes everyone here present. We are all invited to the banquet to witness our faith in action and follow in the footsteps which we were born to live.
Let us all share in the table before us. G-enormous is God with us and how awesome is that.