Feast of the Tabernacle

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Gospel: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040425.cfm

The feast of the tabernacle was a 7-day celebration to commemorate the 40-years the Israelites wandered through the desert. It’s a time to remember their history. During the celebration, people make huts and eat and sleep in them to connect them back to what it was like for their ancestors to wander in the desert. It’s a reminder that God will provide. Some traditions associated the feast with the coming of the Messiah. Jesus celebrates the feast in the Jewish epicenter of Jerusalem. 

While it was a festival to bring people together, not everyone accepted Jesus. He was not fully welcomed by all within his tradition. He didn’t see the world as either/or but as both/and. He was both human and God. He was both known and unknown. He didn’t limit people to Jew and Gentile, but saw people. He changed the paradigm and had followers which made him a threat to the norms that were in place during his day.

So here he was at the feast to pay homage to his tradition. Yet, he was not fully welcomed. He was made an outsider amongst his family. Even more than that, he was seen as an enemy who should be killed. He was deeply misunderstood. He could have stayed away, but he showed up. Even with such threats, he was there to revere his religious and cultural tradition. 

As we move through Lent, we can reflect on our traditions. The Eucharist comes to mind for me. It connects us with our ancestors back to Jesus. We call it communion because it unifies us and brings us together. But when we use our traditions in an exclusive way, it does the opposite. Like with Jesus’s experience, that which is meant to unify, can be used as a weapon to divide. May we use our traditions to unify. May we use this Lent to break bread with others and go beyond the surface to see that we are all one in God. As with Jesus, the person we might be excluding might just be sent by God.