Today in Scripture

Isaiah 25:6-10a
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:
     “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for 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.

There are so many vivid images in this passage! After last week's Thanksgiving holiday, many (although not all) of us can appreciate the delights of a feast of extra-special food and drink.  Isaiah chooses this imagery to highlight the promised state of contentment (in abundance!) and peace that will accompany God's ultimate victory over sin, division and death. You know, Jesus also talks a lot about the Kingdom of God in terms of a banquet (and we often find him sharing food with others in the Gospels), and we speak of the Liturgy of the Eucharist (Mass) as a 'foretaste of the heavenly banquet' .... it all sounds good to me!

There is another image here that has started me thinking... 'the web that is woven over all nations'.  Of course, Isaiah was writing long before the birth of the Internet, the "World Wide Web", which for all its hazards can make vital and positive connections between people and nations across the globe. I'm thinking more about the spiders that live in my yard and sometimes start their webs across my front steps, or stretch to my car's antenna... so that I walk face-first into that invisible stickiness. And then spend the next half-hour wiping at my face and hoping the spider itself is not hiding on me! For the next several days I walk cautiously in that area, never at ease, always suspicious.
This Scripture passage makes me ponder the current reality of our world - well truly, the reality of our world since Isaiah's time. It seems we as nations can't help but get tangled up in a struggle for land and security, for resources and dominance. Just as there is a natural beauty in the patterns of a spider's web that leads to deadly consequences for unsuspecting insects, humanity has a natural inclination to isolate ourselves from the 'other', putting on the veils that obscure our vision, leading to mistrust, misunderstanding, and perhaps violence and death.

That's not the way of God's world, Isaiah tells us, and Jesus shows us. Maybe it takes a focused awareness to clear away the cobwebs, to lift the veil....  Consider these words of Pope Benedict XVI, in his homily last Saturday for the First Vespers of Advent:

Advent, this intense liturgical time that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to grasp a presence. It is an invitation to understand that every event of the day is a gesture that God directs to us, sign of the care he has for each one of us. How many times God makes us perceive something of his love! ... Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord who is present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us to see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to see our whole existence as a "visit," as a way in which he can come to us and be close to us, in each situation?