THE GREAT BANQUET
Our Church prepares us for the great feasts of our Faith. Forty days before the Nativity of Christ,our Church announced to us the coming of our Savior. “The Virgin is coming “Today” to give birth to the pre-existing Logos. The Fathers of our Church searched the Scriptures to help us prepare for the Great Feast of the Birth of Christ. In today’s Gospel lesson our Lord tells us what pitfalls to avoid and how to receive Him.
In the Old Testament the Coming of Christ was compared to a Messianic Wedding Feast. “The Communion hymn, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” describes accurately the spirit of the Holy Eucharist. God the Father prepared a Great Feast, a Banquet for the Incarnation of HisSon. For the un-incarnate Logos of God, Who was Spirit, took upon Himself our human nature from the Virgin Mary and became one of us, without sin. He became a God-Man, both human and divine, in one Hypostasis. St. Athanasios expressed it so beautifully, “God became man, so that man can become God in grace.”
In today’s Gospel Reading, God, the Master of the House, invited his chosen guests to come to the Banquet He was offering in honor of His Son. But his guests declined His invitation, giving as excuses their business, professional and family responsibilities. The Master of the house became very angry with them and said, “I’ll never invite them again.”
Jesus was speaking to the Jews, reminding them of their rejection of the Judges and the
Prophets, whom God had sent to them, to bring them back from their apostasy to idolatry. But instead of repenting for their sin, they persecuted and killed God’s messengers.In the gospel lesson, the Master of the House, replaced His former guests by inviting the poor,the lame and other lowly people to come to His Banquet; and His Table was filled. Before His
Ascension to heaven, Christ instructed His Disciples to go to all the Nations, to evangelize them,to baptize them and to make them participants of His Kingdom. We are their children and we partake of His Banquet, His Holy Eucharist on Sundays.
St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, tells us to “discern,” to realize what we receive in the
Mystical Supper of Christ. We receive the Body and Blood of Christ in an ineffable way. St.Justin the Martyr, who lived in the 2nd century, tells us that the Christians do not receive merebread and wine in the Eucharist, but the precious Body and Blood of Christ, under the sanctified elements of bread and wine. St. Paul warned the Corinthian Christians: “If we receive the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily, it will be to our condemnation, and even death.” That’s why we are warned when we are invited to receive Holy Communion: “With the fear of God, with faith,and with love to approach the holy Chalice. Because, if we are not repentant for our sins, if we do not have love in our heart, even for our enemies, and if we do not believe in the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ, then we receive Holy Communion to our condemnation. Instead of
saving us, it will condemn us. As the Communion prayer tells us, Holy Communion is a fire that burns the unworthy, but it cleanses and purifies the repentant faithful.
Therefore, let us examine our conscience, before we come to Church. Let us forgive and be reconciled in love with one another. And only then, with faith, fear, awe and trembling approach the Holy Chalice. Only then the Holy Eucharist will be for us, for the” forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.”
With love,
Fr. John P. Angelis
