Advent Week 1 Wednesday

Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 22; Matthew 15:29-37

All three readings speak of the Lord feeding His people. The fish and bread of the miraculous feeding recounted in the gospel might seem a long way from the rich and juicy food and the fine strained wines of which Isaiah speaks in the first reading. Nor do fish and bread seem right as a menu for the banquet which we hear about in the psalm. Unless of course ...

Unless what? Well in Ireland we say that hunger is the best sauce. Food that in times of plenty will seem poor and unappetising, in times of shortage or great need will be received as very satisfactory, and even desirable. As long as it is wholesome it will certainly be welcomed by a hungry person. One Lent I spent some time in a monastery which was observing a strict fast. After three days the humble breakfast of bread and butter with coffee had become for me a banquet.

The gospel reading tells us that the people had been with Jesus for the same length of time, three days. They will therefore have worked up an appetite, carrying their sick relatives and friends to Jesus, hopeful but still anxious, perhaps having traveled long distances.

So what counts as a banquet depends also on the hunger of those who need to eat. And perhaps this is also a way of describing the work of Advent: we are given this time to work up an appetite for the One who is coming. The point is not just how glorious and splendid will be that coming. It will pass us by if we are not disposed to receive it, if we have no appetite for it, if we are satisfying the hunger of our souls on more immediate, fancier perhaps, but less wholesome food.

The Lord is coming to save us but what if we have no need for a Saviour? What if we already find salvation enough elsewhere? Fish and bread might seem like nothing compared with the juicy food and fine wines we get elsewhere. But if we are lame or crippled, blind or dumb, if we are hungry and needy, anxious and tired having travelled already so far - well then His coming will be wonderful and we will appreciate it. It will be enough to have Him with us. The fish and bread he offers will be glorious and fulfilling because we will recognise Him in these gifts, food from heaven, containing every pleasure, every delight, every blessing.

The Lord who is coming is full of compassion for struggling humanity: the gospel today also tells us this, from the lips of Jesus. May God give us a clear sense of our need, a keen awareness of our deepest hunger, so that we will rejoice and exult when that need is met and when that hunger is sated by the Lord for whom we are longing.