One way in which we “prepare the way of the Lord” is setting the table of the Lord. At the Eucharistic Sacrifice we place the gifts upon the altar as a humble offering, a token of bread and wine, that the Crucified and Risen Lord may take our offering and make it His Own offering, the sacrifice par excellence, his gift of Himself for us, His offering of Himself on the Cross, “the sacrifice acceptable to [the Father] which brings salvation to the whole world” (Eucharistic Prayer IV). “No one,” the Lord Jesus said, “has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). The bread and wine, which we make possible by our small contributions, symbolize all that we seek to give to the Lord: our “joy and hope,” our “grief and anguish” (Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, no. 1).
This little act of hospitality, allowing the Lord Jesus into our heart, opens us to receive His hospitality, and our lives open to the very Presence of the One Who is absolutely for us. “For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven” (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed). “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). If we prepare the table of the Lord, bringing our gifts to the altar, the Lord Jesus Himself lavishes the banquet which anticipates the fullness of salvation upon us, giving us His Body and Blood in sacramental form to nourish and lead us to the fullness of the Kingdom, where “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8).
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).
