“Waiting in Joyful Hope” by Colleen O’Sullivan
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. (Isaiah 25:6)
At that time: Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them. (Matthew 15:29-30)
Piety
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul. (Psalm 23:1-3a)
Study
As I pondered the Scripture readings for today, many images flashed through my mind. The kid sitting by himself at a table in the school cafeteria, hungry for friendship. The child who is bullied at school and online, hungry for peace and wellbeing. The brokenhearted children all around our country who’ve lost parents to deportation, hungry for reunited families. The families with nothing to eat in the house, mocked by our culture of abundance, hungry for basic sustenance. The lonely elderly in assisted living and nursing homes, hungry for human companionship. The millions of refugees on our planet, hungry for a place to call home. The women who could proclaim #/MeToo but are suffering in silence, hungry for healing and justice.
Hunger and thirst are often literally that, the need for food and drink. Around the globe, we know that droughts, floods, wars, and poverty end up causing people to go to bed wondering where their next meal is coming from or how they will feed their children. Isaiah’s words provide hope. In God’s Kingdom, the prophet Isaiah says there will be a non-stop, heavenly banquet offering not just food, but the best food and wine imaginable.
Hunger and thirst often take on other forms – the longing to be made whole physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Jesus healed many ills in the Gospels. Jesus would have sat right down at the empty table in the cafeteria with the lonely child. Jesus would have harsh words for people who pick on those more vulnerable than themselves. Jesus would feed the hungry; he did so in the second half of today’s Gospel reading! Jesus would have as much compassion for people nearing the end of their lifespans as he does for unborn children.
There is no hunger of the stomach or the human heart that Jesus didn’t seek to heal while here among us. And our Scripture readings today promise us a future in God’s Kingdom, where there will be no more tears, no more needs, no more dying.
Action
In the meantime, Jesus asks us to be his eyes, his ears, his hands and feet in our world today. The Lord asks us to be compassionate and merciful to our brothers and sisters. It’s wonderful to spend Advent in joyful hope, but we can also satisfy many fits of hunger today. Pick one person with a need and reach out in love to him or her today.
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