The Banquet and the Mission

Isa 25:6-10a; Psalm: 22; Mt 15:29-37

Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, on this Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, the great missionary who crossed oceans to bring the Gospel to new worlds, the Church presents us with a stunning vision of God’s plan: a universal banquet of salvation, prepared by the Lord’s own hand and offered to all peoples.

The Prophet Isaiah proclaims a promise of unimaginable consolation. On the Lord’s holy mountain, God Himself “will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines.” This is no ordinary meal; it is the messianic banquet, the celebration of eternal life. But the promise goes beyond satisfying hunger. God will “destroy the veil that veils all peoples,” the “web that is woven over all nations.” He will “destroy death forever,” wiping away every tear from every face. This is the ultimate goal: the defeat of sin and death, and the gathering of all humanity into the joy of God’s presence. The response of the people is one of expectant faith: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!”

This prophecy finds its powerful fulfillment in the Gospel. Jesus goes up on a mountain—echoing Isaiah’s holy mountain—and heals the lame, the blind, the deformed, and the mute. He is already destroying the “veil” of suffering that afflicts humanity. Moved with compassion for the hungry crowd, He performs the miracle of the loaves and fishes, feeding four thousand men, “not counting women and children.” This is a living sign of the messianic banquet. In Jesus, God is providing the bread of life, satisfying the deep hunger of the human heart. It is a foretaste of the Eucharist, where He continues to feed us with His own Body and Blood.

This is the heart of the Catholic faith we proclaim. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He is the one who, through His Cross and Resurrection, has destroyed the power of death and opened the way to the eternal banquet. The Church, as Pope Saint John Paul II often said, is a “sacrament of communion with God and of unity among men,” called to extend this invitation to the ends of the earth.

Saint Francis Xavier understood this with a burning zeal. He heard the Lord’s compassion for the vast, spiritually hungry crowds of India and Japan. He saw the “veil” of ignorance and sin that kept them from knowing the God who loved them, and he dedicated his life to tearing it down. He brought them the living Bread of the Gospel, so they too could look to God and say, “This is the Lord; we looked to him to save us.”

The comfort for us is this: we are all invited to the Lord’s banquet. In the Eucharist, we receive a real foretaste of the heavenly feast. The challenge is to share this invitation. We may not travel to distant lands, but we are all called to be missionaries. We fulfill this by living with Eucharistic gratitude, by wiping away the tears of those who suffer through works of mercy, and by boldly sharing the reason for our hope.

As St. Augustine said, “You are the Body of Christ. In you and through you, the work of the Incarnation must go forward.” Let us ask for the intercession of Saint Francis Xavier. May his missionary fire ignite in us a renewed desire to bring the world to the Lord’s mountain, where every hunger is satisfied, and death is no more. Amen.