December 3, 2025 – Wednesday of the 1st week of Advent
Isaiah 26:1-6; Matthew 7:21, 24-27
HOMILY
The prophet Isaiah uses the image of a banquet to describe the salvation of the messianic age offered to all peoples. In the same way, Jesus often uses the image of the wedding banquet in the Gospel when He wants to reveal the mystery of the history of salvation.
Let us reflect a little on the meaning of this image. First of all, let us ask ourselves what distinguishes a banquet from an everyday meal.
The first difference is in the invitation. Indeed, one does not attend a banquet without being invited. It is a festive meal to which a person freely invites whomever he/she wishes. The guests are free to accept, but they are in a way compelled by this invitation to reveal whether or not they are true friends.
And then, a banquet brings together several people. For a host or hostess, it is an art to know how to choose the guests well. On the one hand, it is necessary to avoid bringing together at the same table people who cannot get along. On the other hand, a banquet can also be an opportunity for reconciliation for people who have something to forgive each other for. It can also be an opportunity to form new friendships.
The third element that characterises a banquet is that it is not something that happens every day. There must be something or someone to celebrate: the occasion may be an arrival, a departure, a reunion after a long separation, an election, or a wedding, etc. It is always an opportunity to remember something that is of special importance to all those involved.
Such a celebration requires a certain commitment on the part of everyone. Indeed, one can no longer afford to be enemies after participating together in a banquet, even if one was before.
A banquet also requires special food: something really good and prepared with love, which is a feast for the eyes and the nose as well as for the taste buds. What we eat at a banquet is not simply to satisfy our hunger.
Well, I think it is quite easy to apply all this to the Eucharistic banquet.
We are the guests of the Lord Jesus, who has instructed us to gather around the table in memory of Him. This is something much more important and richer than simply being faithful to an obligation or observing a rule. It is an opportunity for us to show our love for the person who invites us, knowing that we are always welcome.
The One who invited us has called us from all parts of the world to transform us into a community, a Church. We who are gathered here are that call—and our daily celebration—which, beyond all our differences of ideas, opinions, and concerns, makes us a community, a Church.
We are gathered here this morning to celebrate something, or rather someone, together. We celebrate the Paschal mystery of our redemption in Christ. We want to keep alive the memory of the One who invited us, and listen again to His message.
We have special food, which is the body and blood of Christ, the sacrament of Jesus' love for us and of the love we want to have for one another.
All this requires a commitment on our part: a commitment to live out the message we have received and to manifest in our lives today the bonds that have been restored or strengthened; a commitment to pass on the invitation to all; and finally, the commitment to make it possible for everyone to participate in this banquet.
But there is one last element of a banquet that is important to emphasise: festive attire is required. A well-educated person does not go to a banquet in ‘jeans’. Invitations from people who consider themselves to be part of high society often include the phrase ‘evening dress required’ or something similar. But I do not believe that this is what our parable is about. Indeed, all those who were gathered from the public square to fill the banquet hall certainly did not have wedding attire. I believe that to understand the meaning of this element of our parable, we must refer to the parable of the prodigal son, where the son who remained faithful to his father returns from the fields and hears the sounds of the feast, but does not want to enter. The lesson of today's parable is that we cannot participate in the banquet offered by God to all His sons and daughters if our hearts are not in a festive mood, if we are not willing to rejoice in the fact that He welcomes all sinners and all poor beggars like us to this banquet.
Armand Veilleux