No Hunger on God’s Mountain

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

For a third day Isaiah takes us to the mountain of the Lord. On Monday Isaiah described the mountain as a place of peace, promising the end to warfare. Yesterday we learned that the mountain of the Lord would be a place free of natural disasters. Today's description of the mountain tells us that it will also be a place free of hunger; all people on God's holy mountain will be well fed with rich, juicy food. It becomes increasingly clear that these oracles point to a Messiah who will restore the world to God's original design.

Most of the people of Israel experienced a subsistence kind of existence. They spent little time concerned about what happened yesterday and even less time being concerned about the future. Their primary concern was today. Whence would their next meal come? Would they go to bed that evening hungry or with full bellies? They spent no time wondering which clothing they would wear that day as they only had one cloak, one tunic. Unfortunately, many people in what we refer to as the third world still live the same kind of subsistence existence.

Our Advent prayer today focuses our attention on the poor and the starving peoples of our world. Jesus fed the multitude in the Gospels to fulfill the Messianic promise of Isaiah. It is now our task to do the same.