In today’s gospel, we immediately get the sense of the tension that is building up for Jesus and his followers as they approach his impending passion and death in Jerusalem with him.
We would recall that the apostles were not receptive of Jesus’ prophecy that all these things would come about, which is to be expected knowing how we always try to look out for those we love. If someone told you they were going somewhere to die, what would you do?
We are told that Jesus remains rather low-key as he heads to the Feast of Tabernacles where the others have already gathered. This feast numbered among the top three in the Jewish liturgical calendar, and was considered by Philo and Josephus (ancient Jewish scholars/historians) as perhaps the most important. It’s beautiful symbolism is outlined in Leviticus 23, where God himself gives the command to observe this peculiar feast so as to, in his own words, “…remind those who come after you that I bade the sons of Israel dwell in tents when I rescued them from the land of Egypt.”
Here is how God prescribed the feast in its entirety:
“And on the first day you will pluck fruit from some favourite tree, and branches of palm, leafy boughs, and osiers from the river banks, and so keep holiday in the presence of the Lord your God. For a whole week every year you will honour this observance, making it a law at all times and everywhere. It is to be kept in the seventh month, and for seven days you will live in arbours; the whole race of Israel will become tent-dwellers, to remind those who come after you that I bade the sons of Israel dwell in tents when I rescued them from the land of Egypt; I, the Lord your God.” Leviticus 23:40-43
I said this was peculiar, in that to the mind of a contemporary to Jesus, having to dwell in a tent made of branches, foliage and some favourite fruits, may have seemed a bit strange even if they knew it was because this is how their ancestors set up their shelters in the desert once having been freed from Egypt by God. Why would pitching a tent be so important a remembrance that God would ask his people many years after the fact, to reside in tents for a week?
You see, time as we conceive it, is not the same when it comes to God. His mind, his intellect, exists outside of time, yet he obviously and clearly sees through his omniscience, everything we are experiencing in our understanding of time.
He therefore, sees things with an eternal perspective. God’s vision extends beyond our vision. Every single one of his interventions therefore, in the Old Testament, he himself tailormade to be a foreshadowing of what would happen in the New, and in and of itself, that was a sign of God’s awesome omnipotence. Only God can write a story of this kind, through the events which shaped salvation history, and teach us important lessons through it that in fact would have eternal ramifications for each of us! Did that just go right over your head? Do not worry. What does it mean? It means that when God was initially revealing himself and his plan through his chosen people in the Old Testament, he was already envisioning so to speak, what he would eventually usher into human history so that we could be offered the opportunity to choose to be with him forever, out of love. And the thing he saw that he would have to accomplish involved his assuming a true human nature and “pitching his tent among us” in the inspired words of Saint John, just as he desired to pitch his tent with his liberated people out in the desert. Hence, the beauty of the Feast of the Tabernacles, finds its fulfillment in the Son of God, pitching a tent, and dwelling among us and his invitation during Lent to join him in the desert of the process which involves simplifying our lives to make more room for God there.
With this as our backdrop, let us return to the gospel. Now, how beautiful is it, that Jesus, the one in whom all these types and figures find their fulfillment, is himself making his way to the Feast of Tabernacles? Add to that something even more special—that Jesus now dwells within a tabernacle, right there, as close as your local Catholic church? How wonderous is it, that the Lord God of Hosts, pitches his tent among us in all these sacred Catholic churches around the world? So little considered and so insufficiently appreciated, is the ever-faithful, omni-present love of Almighty God contained in that tiny little “tent”, however adorned with gold and precious gems, if it even be so (sometimes a nice wooden tabernacle suffices for our gentle Saviour), and as St Peter Julian Eymard once put it, “Our Lord is now more poor and humble in the tabernacle, than when he pitched his tent among us in human form two thousand years ago.” His humility, therefore, is the most striking feature of his presence in our tabernacles. It is no wonder that Saint Francis so meticulously maintained the holy sanctuaries he used to frequent, taking care to make sure that linens were clean and the Holy Tabernacle was kept adorned in a befitting manner.
Thomas of Celano, the first biographer of Francis of Assisi, tells us that the saint often used to tell people: “If I should happen at the same time to come upon any saint coming from heaven and some little poor priest, I would first show honor to the priest, and hurry more quickly to kiss his hands. For I would say to the saint: ‘Hey, St. Lawrence, wait! His hands may handle the Word of Life and possess something more than human!'” Such was the love of St. Francis for the Eucharist.
In DynamicCatholic.com’s book, Beautiful Eucharist, Matthew Kelly asks, “If you had to spend the rest of your life on a deserted island, and you could only take 5 people with you, whom would you take? I can tell you a priest would be on my list of five people. No priest, no Mass. No Mass, no Eucharist. I can’t live without the Eucharist. More importantly, I don’t want to. And once you come to understand the power of the Eucharist, you won’t want to either.” (1) That's an excellent reminder of the importance of our ordained priests and how much we need to pray for them, as Satan also knows how God becomes present through their hands at the altar, but also in their vast pastoral ministry and potential to aid Catholics to salvation, and his sights will be focused on destroying them and their vocation. We need to pray for vocations, but also for those already priests!
This is so in keeping with the gospel of today, in which we see the Lord, the Creator of all things visible and invisible, of worlds beyond our imagination… and how does the gospel describe his going to this Feast of Tabernacles? “after his brothers had left for the festival, he went up as well, but quite privately, without drawing attention to himself.” Yes, privately, low-key… “without drawing attention to himself.” Look at the humility on display by our Master, who teaches us the most profound lessons of humility as we journey the path of our spiritual lives.
Now of course, aside from his humility, another reason he was not drawing attention to himself was because the Jews were out to kill him, but as we see at the end of the gospel today, he had power over when the hour would be given to them in which they would be able to cease him and begin his trial. We are told, “They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.” Perhaps therefore, humility can be said to remain the primary reason as to why he made that journey quietly and without drawing attention to himself. He would later remind his apostles, for example, that no one would take his life away from him, but that he would lay it down of his own accord, when and how he deemed was in congruence with the Father’s will. If no one took his life for him, why would he need to travel silently in fear?
On his way there he takes the opportunity to stop and continue to share his message quite openly, which again fortifies our contention that his private way of travelling was not due to fear, so that onlookers begin wondering, “Isn’t this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have made up their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.”
Here the people come to another interesting question which sheds light on Christ’s true identity. They were speculating as regards that much. They asked whether the authorities finally believed Jesus to be the Christ, yet they knew him to have come from Joseph and Mary, and yet, through the Old Testament, through prophecies and types and figures, it was stipulated that no one would truly know the Messiah’s origins. This immediately would have conjured to mind Micah’s prophecy,
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity” (5:2)
His origins are from everlasting and hence unknown. Jesus stipulates in the gospel why this origin is unknown to them, because it is to be found in the bosom of the Eternal Father whom, to use Jesus’ own words, they had “neither seen nor known.” So too is their false, yet natural assertion that Joseph was his biological father.
This too would have cast doubts as to Jesus qualifying as the Messiah, for based on Melchizedek, that mysterious Old Testament priest whom the Messiah would be a new form of, had no known lineage, i.e., traceable parents. Unlike all Old Testament priests, he brought bread and wine. Sound familiar? Hence the people are rightly confused. It’s to be expected, so Jesus, clarifies things for them. And we have a magnificent play on both his human and divine natures in his dialogue with them:
“Yes, you know me and you know where I came from.” (Human nature)
“Yet I have not come of myself: no, there is one who sent me and I really come from him, and you do not know him, but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me.” (Divine nature)
In a way therefore, we notice Jesus not denying his human roots, especially the motherhood of the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary and also in being associated with Saint Joseph as “the son of the carpenter.” Nevertheless, he then moves on to his human pre-existence from all eternity, having been with the Father, he could therefore be sent by him: “… there is one who sent me and I really come from him.”
Our faith in Jesus is a faith in the one and true God who humbled himself to be in our midst and show us the way.
May that goodness be a light to our path and a continual source of strength and encouragement for us, especially when things get difficult and people don’t understand us. We look to him who loved us first, so as to be able to love in all circumstances and let the Father’s will shine through us. Amen.
(1) LF
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Thomas of Celano…Francis’ love of the Eucharist reminded of something I just read in DynamicCatholic.com’s book, “Beautiful Eucharist.” In the Introduction, page 4-5, Matthew Kelly asks, “If you had to spend the rest of your life on a deserted island, and you could only take 5 people with you, whom would you take? I can tell you a priest would be on my list of five people. No priest, no Mass. No Mass, no Eucharist. I can’t live without the Eucharist. More importantly, I don’t want to. And once you come to understand the power of the Eucharist, you won’t want to either.”
Beautiful quote! Thanks LF