Read Today's Scripture
Wisdom 7:15-22
Matthew 13:47-52
Banquet in our Hearts
Bede was ordained deacon at nineteen and presbyter at thirty. However his parents brought him to a nearby monastery for his education at seven. He died while dictating a commentary on John’s Gospel in 735. His life indicates a giftedness for knowledge and wisdom. He wrote, “spending all the remaining time of my life… I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in learning, teaching, and writing.”1 And he did wholly apply himself. Amongst his various sermons, one stands out, on the conversion of Matthew.
“Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift. As he sat at table in the house, behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. This conversion of one tax collector gave many men, those from his own profession and other sinners, an example of repentance and pardon.
“To see a deeper understanding of the great celebration Matthew held at his house, we must realize that he not only gave a banquet for the Lord at his earthly residence, but far more pleasing was the banquet set in his own heart which he provided through faith and love. Our Savior attests to this: Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. On hearing Christ’s voice, we open the door to receive him, as it were, when we freely assent to his promptings and when we give ourselves over to doing what must be done. Christ, since he dwells in the hearts of his chosen ones through the grace of his love, enters so that he might eat with us and we with him. He ever refreshes us by the light of his presence insofar as we progress in our devotion to and longing for the things of heaven. He himself is delighted by such a pleasing banquet.”
Bede’s words reflect something that ought to be true of all our lives: to open our hearts to Christ so that he can feast with us, and we can pursue his holiness and become like him.
"The Venerable Bede Translates John" by James Doyle Penrose (1862-1932)
Inset from "The last chapter (Bede)", exhibited at the Royal Academy (1902)
Collect
Heavenly Father, who didst call thy servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to thy service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship; Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of thy truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make thee known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.