In Isaiah’s prophetic vision, the House of the Lord will be established, in the fullness of time, on top of the holy mountain, Mt. Zion, to which people of all nations will be streaming.
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! (Isaiah 2:2-5).
For us to reach his house, Lord gives us the Word to instruct us in his ways so that we may walk in the light of the Lord. In this house, people of all nations enjoy peace and harmony.
This eschatologically prophetic vision of the House of the Lord is also found in Micah’s vison.
In days to come the mount of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain; it shall be raised above the hills, and peoples shall stream to it: Many nations shall come, and say, “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and set terms for strong and distant nations; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. They shall all sit under their own vines, under their own fig trees, undisturbed; for the Lord of hosts has spoken. Though all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, We will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever.
On that day—oracle of the Lord —I will gather the lame, and I will assemble the outcasts, and those whom I have afflicted. I will make of the lame a remnant, and of the weak a strong nation; The Lord shall be king over them on Mount Zion from now on and forever.
And you, O tower of the flock, hill of daughter Zion! To you it shall come: the former dominion shall be restored, the reign of daughter Jerusalem (Micah 4:1-8).
In this vision of Micah, not all of people walking are believers. But we, the believers and the faithful, walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever (Micah 4:7). And the Lord is identified as the King (Micah 4:7).
Indeed, it reflects this prophetic vision of Isaiah:
But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall graze, together their young shall lie down; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the viper’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
They shall not harm or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the peoples - Him the nations will seek out; his dwelling shall be glorious.
On that day, the Lord shall again take it in hand to reclaim the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria and Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, and Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the isles of the sea.
He shall raise a signal to the nations and gather the outcasts of Israel; The dispersed of Judah he shall assemble from the four corners of the earth.
The envy of Ephraim shall pass away, and those hostile to Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not be hostile to Ephraim; But they shall swoop down on the foothills of the Philistines to the west, together they shall plunder the people of the east; Edom and Moab shall be their possessions, and the Ammonites their subjects.
Lord shall dry up the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and wave his hand over the Euphrates with his fierce wind, and divide it into seven streamlets, so that it can be crossed in sandals. There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when it came up from the land of Egypt (Isaiah 11:1-16).
Now we know that the Lord is a Davidic king – having sprouted from the stump of Jesse, the father of David (Isaiah 11:1; Matthew 1:6-16), fulfilling God’s words to David through Nathan:
I will assign a place for my people Israel and I will plant them in it to dwell there; they will never again be disturbed, nor shall the wicked ever again oppress them, as they did at the beginning, and from the day when I appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you: when your days have been completed and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He it is who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. If he does wrong, I will reprove him with a human rod and with human punishments; but I will not withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from Saul who was before you. Your house and your kingdom are firm forever before me; your throne shall be firmly established forever (2 Samuel 7:10-16).
The Davidic King, our Lord, whom we seek, and to whose house we stream, is the Messiah (Christ) as he is anointed with the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; cf. 61:1), Therefore, the Lord is endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including wisdom (Isaiah 11:2-3; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11). He is, indeed, the Wisdom himself (i.e. Proverbs 8:22-31), as well as, the Word (John 1:1).
The Lord, Christ the Davidic King, assembles all of those who are faithful and righteous, in his judgement, in the appointed time, to his house on the holy mountain, where peace and harmony prevail, from all nations.
In the Fist Reading of Wednesday of the First Week of Advent (Isaiah 25:6-10a), we see those who were called by the Lord to his House and streamed to it will be the guests for the feast, hosted by the Lord in his House:
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. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations. He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: “Indeed, this is our God; we looked to him, and he saved us! This is the Lord to whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain (Isaiah 25:6-10a).
When this banquet is held, all its guest, invited by the Lord, Christ the King, will no longer die and live in peace and joy forever in the House of the Lord.
This indicates that the House of the Lord on the holy mountain will be found nowhere on earth but in New Jerusalem in the new creation, which the Lord has revealed to John:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away. The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said, “Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.” He said to me, “They are accomplished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son (Revelation 21:1-7).
Therefore, those who are streaming to the House of the Lord on the holy mountain and sit for the feast in this house are saints, victors in faith (Revelation 15:2; 21:5), those who endured tribulation (Revelation 7:14). And the banquet hosted by the Lord in his house is a prophetic vision of this eschatological vision revealed by the Lord to John:
A voice coming from the throne said: “Praise our God, all you his servants, and you who revere him, small and great.” Then I heard something like the sound of a great multitude or the sound of rushing water or mighty peals of thunder, as they said: “Alleluia! The Lord has established his reign, our God, the almighty. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.” Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These words are true; they come from God” (Revelation 19:5-9).
Until we are sitting for this heavenly banquet, hosted by the Lord, Christ the King, in his House, we are given his body and blood in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Lord’s Supper in the Upper Room on the night before his death, the Lord instituted this Sacrament and said to his disciples:
I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God. Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you that from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes (Luke 22:16-18).
The Isaiah’s prophetic vision of the feast hosted by the Lord in his House (Isaiah 25:6-10a) is a prefiguration of the eschatological vision of the heavenly banquet revealed by the Lord to John (Revelation 19:5-9) in celebrating the fulfillment in the Kingdom of God, which is confirmed with the second coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11-16). Between these visions, the Lord, Jesus Christ, the King, instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on the night before his death and instructed the disciples to hold this Eucharistic supper in memory of him until the fulfillment of the Kingdom upon his return. Thus, the Eucharist is actually temporary, as manna was so until entering the promised land (Joshua 5:12), though, unlike manna, the Eucharist leads to eternal life (John 6:32-58).
The Catholics are, indeed, blessed and privileged to receive this Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at every Mass, in memory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King, at the Seder Passover supper hosted by him on the night before his death, in connection to the heavenly banquet, as in a vision of Isaiah (Isaiah 25:6-10a) and as revealed by Christ the Lord to John (Revelation 19:5-9). And this is also poetically sung in the Responsorial Psalm (23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6), with an image of the Lord being New Moses, shepherding us in the New Exodus into his Kingdom, where he spread the table to host the banquet.
Now, how does the Gospel Reading (Mathew 15:29-37), which is about Jesus miraculously feeding a great cloud out of five loaves and two fish in Galilee, fit in the these of the Lord’s banquet in his house on the holy mountain – in his Kingdom?
This miracle is Christ actually feeding the large crowds out of compassion. Those who were fed includes those who were with various disabilities. None of those who sought him to the mountain where he was found, was rejected. All were welcomed (cf. Isaiah 56:3-8). And this reflects the images of people streaming to the House of the Lord on the holy mountain (Isaiah 2:2-5; Micah 4:1-8). The fact that it was Christ who hosted them for this miraculous feeding reflects Lord hosts the feast in his House, in the First Reading (Isaiah 25:6-10a).
Reflecting Christ as the generous host of a feast, in connection to the heavenly banquet (Revelation 19:5-9), to his feeing the great crowd out of five loaves and two fish on the mountain in Galilee (Matthew 15:29-37), in connection to Isaiah’s vision of the feast in the House of the Lord (Isaiah 25:6-10a), and in connection to the Lord instituting the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist with his body and blood during the Passover Seder on the night before his death (Matthew 26:17–29//Mark 14:12–25//Luke 22:7–38; and I Corinthians 11:23–25) during Advent, this will drive us to the manger, in which Lord Jesus Christ, our King, was placed when he was born of Mary in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7). The manger symbolized the fact that Lord Jesus Christ, the King, came to feed us with his body and blood and will come again to feed us at the banquet in his House at the appointed time with the fulfillment of his Kingdom.
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