Jesus is Coming to Feast with Us"
Today's Mass Readings
When today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew is read within its Advent context, we can see how it pertains to the coming of Christ at Christmas, and the coming of Christ into our lives. Jesus rebukes His generation in front of a multitude of people, presumably including many of them in the rebuke. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus the Christ, went around preaching about Jesus. Moreover, John the Baptist was neither a drunkard nor a glutton; if anything, he was the exact opposite. John the Baptist was an ascetic. He lived a very disciplined life. Despite his holiness and extreme asceticism, some labeled him demon possessed. When Jesus began His ministry, after John the Baptist, He was criticized as a drunkard and a glutton. This may at first strike us as odd. Jesus never gets drunk, and surely He never overindulges in food. Sure we see Him transform water into wine at a wedding, and He certainly is found often with His disciples eating and drinking, but there is nothing in the Gospels to suggest He was a drunkard or a glutton. The very fact that He was so frequently found eating and drinking, indeed feasting at night with so many people who were considered grave sinners of the time, was seen by some as evidence that Jesus must have been a drunkard and glutton.
Jesus explains, however, that wisdom is vindicated by her works. Jesus’ deeds justify Him. His righteous actions show Who He truly is. Jesus is the long awaited Messiah, and He is God in the flesh. Christmas, for which we long during this Advent season, is about God coming to earth as a human, as one of us. Jesus spent time with sinners, and He didn’t simply lecture them, but rather He feasted with them. Jesus celebrated with the lowly and the poor. If any of us is lowly or poor, we should take comfort in the fact that Jesus has come to earth to fellowship with us. If we are not poor, if we are rich, we are still sinners, and can take comfort in the fact that Jesus has come to spend time with us as well. Being poor in spirit and humble of heart is what we need in order to recognize Christ, and in order to welcome Him into our hearts and into our homes.
As we approach the end of Advent and the beginning of the Christmas season, let us prepare ourselves to welcome Jesus into our lives. No matter what state our lives are in, no matter how messy or difficult, Jesus is coming to feast with us.