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“On this mountain,
the Lord of hosts will prepare for all peoples
a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines,
of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines.”
Isaiah 25:6

I was chatting with a friend yesterday about how a missed or misheard word in a conversation can make all the difference. There was the story about the Ten Commandments published missing the word “not” a couple of times in the “thou shalt not…” list. It makes all the the difference.

My friend told of the passage from Isaiah that is today’s first reading recalling that one Sunday when this passage was read at Mass a parishioner with poor hearing couldn’t make out why the promised eternal banquet would include “fine Australian wines.”

The table of friends eating and drinking together is a great image for eternity. Many of life’s best moments happen around food and drink and there is nothing better than relaxing over slow food with good friends and in these encounters we taste the abundance of eternity.

People of every culture use meals as a way of spending quality time together. We meet for a drink or for a coffee, keen for a cuppa and a chat. Life’s milestones are celebrated with meals and the more we love each other the longer we want to spend together at table.

Therefore it’s no surprise that in the gospels Jesus is eating and drinking at every opportunity. Yes, he preaches and works miracles, but even more often he is at table sometimes with one or two, often with the twelve, and in today’s gospel providing food for a large crowd.

It’s easy to give God the big gifts of which we are proud, an obstacle overcome, a relationship healed, a hurt forgiven or a temptation resisted.

God welcomes such gifts of course, but even more Jesus wants our humble offerings, even the gift of our weaknesses and failures which he then uses to become food for us and for many: our meagre offerings of a few loaves and some fish become ‘all we have ever wanted, with much to spare’

I’m reminded of the seventh step prayer of the Twelve Step journey:

“My Creator,
I am now willing
that you should have all of me, good and bad.
I pray that you now remove from me
every single defect of character
which stands in the way
of my usefulness to you and others.
Grant me strength,
as I go out from here,
to do your bidding.
Amen.”

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Take an initiative and send me a date time and place for a FFF cafe-catchups. john@fff.org.nz. I’ll advertise these on each morning’s post throughout Advent.

Wednesday 4 December 10.00am with Joan
Stumble Inn, 200 Mangorei Road
Merrilands, New Plymouth

Wednesday 11 December 10.30am with Christina
Zenders Cafe and Venue
44 Hopkins Rd Newstead, Hamilton

Tuesday 17 December 10.30 with Catherine
Colombus at Mitre 10 MEGA
25 Bouverie St, Petone, Lower Hutt.