Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025 - Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest
Isaiah 25:6–10a
6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.
Prophet Isaiah offers us yet another vision of the world that opposes what we experience in life. He sees a banquet prepared for all peoples — a feast that reminds me of the Eucharist, celebrated across the world and attended by people of every race, tribe, and nation. At that table, the veil between heaven and earth grows thin; strangers become one body, and divisions fade in the light of shared bread and wine. Isaiah’s vision also includes a promise that death will be destroyed forever — words later echoed by Saint John: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more” (Rev 21:4; Is 25:8).
Between the banquet for all peoples and a world without death, the prophet inserts a curious image: “the veil that covers all peoples, and the mantle cast over all nations” (Is 25:7). In biblical parallelism, “veil” and “mantle” describe the same reality — yet what reality is that? I take it as the description of our human predicament of ignorance. We do not see clearly; we do not know what we are doing. Jesus prayed for his persecutors, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). Paul admitted that his zeal to destroy the Church sprang from ignorance (1 Tim 1:13). Their blindness was not malice but misdirected conviction — the thick veil that clouds every human heart.
Paul later used the same language of “veil” to describe his own people’s inability to see that their Scriptures point to Christ: “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts” (2 Cor 3:15). Yet he immediately adds, “When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (2 Cor 3:16). The veil, then, is not only ignorance but also the conditioning of our culture, upbringing, and wounded experience. We see through it, unaware that it distorts the light of truth. The veil hides God from our eyes and one another from our hearts.
Isaiah promised that God himself would remove this veil. The first to taste that liberation was Paul. The risen Christ tore the veil that covered his mind and heart. Paul realised that his “service to God” had turned into violence against others. Christ told him, “Why do you persecute me?” — revealing that to harm another human being is to wound Christ himself. Then the Spirit of Christ entered his heart, removed hatred, and planted love. From that moment, it no longer mattered to Paul whether one was Jew, Arab, or Greek. The veil had fallen, and the world appeared new.
Isaiah’s vision calls us to pray for the same unveiling. For until the veil is lifted, we will go on hurting one another, oppressing the weak, and wounding the earth. Each time we listen with humility — to the Word, to the suffering of others, to creation’s quiet voice — the Spirit loosens another thread of that veil. In every Eucharist, Christ invites us again to see through God’s eyes, to taste the unity that already exists beneath our divisions, and to live as people whose hearts are no longer covered.
When the Lord finally removes the veil from every face, death and ignorance alike will be no more — and all peoples will feast together on the mountain of God.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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