OCTOBER 11, 2026 FATHER MICHAEL COUTTS
In the musical Oliver, we hear those beautiful words, “Food, glorious food. “Hot sausage and mustard! “And while we are in the mood, “cold jelly and custard. “And what is the next question?” “Indigestion.”
When our good friend Isaiah invites us to the heavenly banquet, you have glorious pictures, well-aged wines. You can picture them in the cedars of Lebanon, and marrow, a veritable cholesterol time bomb. But, like in the question of Oliver, there won’t be any indigestion. There won’t be any side effects. And there will be no hangovers as a result of this glorious banquet.
And the people of Israel expected it. They had kept the Torah. They had observed the Sabbath. They have followed the traditions. Christians today expect the same, to be invited to the heavenly banquet because they keep their Sunday obligation. They keep the Commandments. They live the beatitudes. They follow Matthew 25. When they find people hungry, thirsty, in prison, and sick, they visited them.
Isaiah’s banquet is glorious. There will be no more tears or suffering. No more sorrow or hard work. No more slavery or cruel bosses. It’s a beautiful banquet that is prepared by the Lord for a people of Israel who were a military non-entity.
They were being bullied by the Assyrians from Mesopotamia to the north, from the Babylonians from Mesopotamia to the south, by the Egyptians to the west, and these were bullying the people of Israel. And Isaiah said, “Trust in the Lord.” But the people of Israel did not trust in the Lord. They did not heed Isaiah.
But Isaiah was laying a seed for a future generation of Israel, and although he had no vision of you and me, it was also a seed of great hope for us when we live in a world that is so chaotic.
We have world wars, in Israel and Gaza, in Russia and Ukraine, and we have economic wars with tariffs all over the place. And yet, we can’t blame presidents and prime ministers because it’s the oligarchs that are ruling the place, and they are moving the rulers of these places like puppets on a string.
But like the glacier that fell in Nepal and destroyed everybody, our own civilization will fall apart unless we take care of the weakest in our society, the neediest in our society. They are welcome to the table of the Lord.
And Paul in the letter to the Philippians says the same thing, whether you are in good times or in bad, in sickness or in health, be trusting in the Lord.
A great song that has given me great hope is the is the former Jesuit Daniel Schutte. “Blest be the Lord. Blest be the Lord.” “The God of mercy, the God who cares. “I shall not fear the dark of night, “nor the arrow that flies by day.”
The gospel picks up the same story, a wedding feast which signifies a heavenly banquet. The ironic thing is it’s a wedding feast, but the bride and bridegroom have no part in the whole story. It’s the king, and the guests who are invited.
Now, when you are invited to such a prestigious event, you should have a sense of awe, a sense of “Can it actually happen to me? “Who am I? I’m an ordinary person.” But instead of that, they could not care less.
Very recently, and a few months ago, we had the FIFA soccer international games, and people from Mexico, America, and Canada worked together in this great sense of joy, and happiness, and sports. Unfortunately, we seem to be fighting again. But at that given moment, it was a prize to get a ticket for any of these great matches. Thousands of dollars were spent. And when somebody got the ticket, you’d say, “Actually am I getting it?”
And these people got the invitation from the king, and what did they do? One said, “I have to go out for a farm. “I have go to go out on a business. “I’ve got other things to be interested in. “I can’t come for it because I have to watch Downton Abbey, “or Three is Company.” A program.
How banal when you see the contrast between the invitation and the excuses that are given.
We come to a Lord who cares for us. “I shall not fear the dark of night “or the arrows that flies by day.”
Matthew was writing this at the time when Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was in ruins, and Matthew says, “This is going to happen. “It’s not a punishment from God. “It’s a logical thing when you leave God out of the picture.” And so, if we don’t want to have that chaos and confusion in our life, let’s put God at the centre and then everything will fall in place. God bless you all.
