Homily on the 28th Sunday in O.T., 15 October 2023
Allow me to begin with a true to life story. There was once a little boy named Mattheus. When he was born he gave joy to his Mom. However sometime later he was found to have a serious physical and medical condition. He had difficulty eating solid food. Every time he tried to eat his stomach would just vomit the solid food out and would cry due to intense abdominal pain. So, they just tried feeding him with liquefied food, like milk shake rich in vitamins and protein. And it worked.
However, at three and a half years old baby Mattheus was found to be undernourished and weighed only nine kilos. His mother spent many years praying for her child, but all her prayers seemed to fall on deaf ears and she was on the brink of giving up. Even the doctors have given up hope that her son’s condition would ever improve and that the feeble child would not live any longer. Only a miracle could save her son and bring about the healing and recovery she has been praying for.
Have you ever had a similar experience of being seriously sick, and you could not even eat because of the sudden loss of appetite or prolonged problems with digestion? Or have you ever experienced being so hungry and so bankrupt that you and the rest of the family are forced to sleep with an empty stomach? Or just think about the innocent people caught in the crossfire between the Israeli forces and the Hamas. How many of them have been killed, or wounded not being able to eat and be treated for their wounds.
We are gathered today to give thanks to God for the gift of our life, good health and our Catholic Faith. We thank him for being able to survive despite this pandemic and to live normal lives, eating and drinking everyday at times with so much joy and pleasure. But the sad fact is there are people in some parts of the world who are not endowed with such blessings coming from God. They are either seriously ill or seriously poor. Some are in fact rich, well-off and can buy all the food and drinks they want, but they cannot eat and drink because they are so sick. There are others however who are in perfect condition of health but have nothing at all to eat because of extreme poverty.
The good news is this: God does not want us to suffer; God does not want us to be in pain. The first reading we just heard today from the prophet Isaiah shows this very clearly. It said: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” Isn’t that so good to hear?
I remember when I was still a child, I heard my teacher saying that heaven is a happy place where you can eat your favorite food in great abundance. So when you get there you can eat as much as you want without having to complain of diarrhea, and you can drink as much as you like without being drunk or intoxicated. Today we find that idea of heaven seemingly confirmed in the Scripture readings.
In the first reading, the vision and prophecy of Isaiah gives us a glimpse of the ecstatic joy we can experience when we reach heaven where good food and drink are lavishly prepared. Isn’t it true that many of us really have very simply joys in life, basta mabusog lang masaya na; basta makainom lang nang konti happy na (one feels happy after having had a good meal or contented after a refreshing drink). However the sad thing is that many people do not anymore care about the real heaven beyond this life that God has in store for us. There are times we tend to create our own self-centered haven here on earth even at the expense of others: a luxurious, comfortable and pleasurable life without rules, without authority, without God.
The good news is, whatever we might be experiencing right now whether it is a life of luxury or poverty, we are being invited by the prophet Isaiah to put God at the center of our lives because it is only He who can make us experience the real heaven that never ends. Whether that would happen sooner or later we believe God will make us enjoy it for all eternity. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed it very clearly: “On that mountain… the Lord GOD will destroy death forever… (he) will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth.”
In other words, there will be no more sadness, tears or suffering, but only joy, gladness and thanksgiving. There will be no more wars like what is happening now in Gaza and the Holy Land. God will even forgive sinners, including those who commit injustice, corruption and those who made others suffer as long as they all repent and return to Him.
Jesus confirms this in the gospel parable we have heard today. God is preparing a sumptuous banquet for you and me and for all his people. It will certainly be a feast with all the exquisite food and drinks on the dining table perhaps including lechong manok, lechong baboy, and lechong baka.
There is however a twist in this parable, and it is the disappointment of having so many guests invited but refusing to come to God’s banquet table. And some of those who have come will even be thrown out for not being properly dressed. This just shows that God’s offer of salvation is free, and it will all depend on our personal choice and decision to accept it or not. But if we accept his honored invitation and put on the proper wedding attire of virtues and good works, then we are sure that to experience true and lasting joy; a genuine happiness this world cannot offer.
I am a bit sad to share with you that even after 500 years of Christianity in our country, fewer Filipinos have been coming to church to celebrate the sacraments in their lives. In 1950 the Catholic population of Cebu was 99%. But the recent statistics show a big drop to 87%. This is very disheartening and at the same time alarming too. While our churches are still filled with Mass goers, the reality is that more and more of us no longer consider the Eucharist as central in their lives. And many more do not see Baptism, Marriage and the other sacraments as important and significant celebrations of our Catholic faith. If we Catholics continue to lose this precious gift of faith what happened in the past when God opened up the doors of his banquet hall to gentiles, pagans and non-Jews, can happen again in this present generation. This same door which Catholics refused to enter will soon be opened by God to non-believers who are willing to put Jesus at the very center of their lives.
Going back to the story of baby Mattheus I narrated earlier, his mother who was from Brazil did not give up praying for her son despite the nearing possibility of death. One day in 2013 she prayed before the revered relic of a certain young man named Carlo Acutis whose cause for beatification & canonization was in progress. The day was October 12, the seventh anniversary of his death. She brought along her four-year old son, Mattheus, who was suffering still from congenital malformation of the pancreas. The little boy prayed with his mom saying ‘I wish I could stop vomiting so much.’ Then as soon as the boy touched the picture of the God’s servant Carlo Acutis, he felt being instantly healed. He asked for food and he was given a plate of steak with beans, French fries and rice, and he ate and finished everything. And surprisingly for the very first time he did not experience vomiting as he used to do. From then on Mattheus began eating normally and was soon pronounced by the doctors totally cured and miraculously healed of the malady he had since birth.
My brothers and sisters, this is what God is dreaming for each and everyone of us, a life of total healing from all our infirmities and total pardon from all our sins, and above all, the honor of sitting down at table with Him in his heavenly banquet.
And just for you to know, the young man, by whose intercession Mattheus was instantly healed, has recently been declared “blessed” by Pope Francis, and so we can now invoke him as Blessed Carlo Acutis.
In this Eucharist and in every Eucharist we celebrate, let us strive to be always properly dressed and properly disposed, both interiorly and exteriorly, convinced that this Eucharistic banquet on earth is already a foretaste of God’s eternal banquet in heaven. Let us pray that through the intercession of Bl. Carlo Acutis we may obtain the graces we are praying for, and that we too may put on the wedding garment of a holy and blameless life made elegant and beautiful by virtues and good works, hoping that one day we may take our place at the eternal banquet God has prepared for us in heaven. Let us also pray that all wars and conflicts may soon cease and peace may reign in every land, in every family and in every heart. GiGsss!
P.S.
Just in case you do not know yet who Blessed Carlos Acutis is, he was born in London in 1991 but grew up in Milan and was educated by the Jesuits. He was just like any other teenager who loved everything about life. He loved sports including football and became a computer geek. But unlike many other youth of his age, he used digital technology not for self-promotion but rather for promoting Christ who is really present in the Holy Eucharist. He himself was strongly devoted to both Mary and her Rosary and Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. He attended Mass everyday and went to confession every week. He was inspired by many saints like St Francis of Assisi, Sts. Jacinta and Francisco of Fatima, St Bernadette Soubirous and above all St. Dominic Savio whom he took as one of his models.
His devotion and piety did not remain inside the church because he reached out to as many friends as he could to bring them close to Jesus, both online and offline. When he contracted Leukemia he offered his pain to the Lord for the Pope and the universal Church. He must have been inspired by what St Paul wrote in the second reading: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” We can say that Blessed Carlo understood well his Catholic faith and even influenced his own Mom to return to the sacraments. He put Jesus in the Eucharist at the very center of his life, and in fact he frequently said “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.” May the young people of Maryville get to know him better and be inspired by his holy life.
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