The Lord describes four major festivals the Israelites are to observe in today’s first reading: Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths. All these festivals, Fr Peter notes, involve food for which the Israelites are to give thanks to God. They prefigure the greatest festival of all – the Eucharist – in which God Himself becomes our food.
The LORD said to Moses, “These are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate at their proper time with a sacred assembly.”
LV 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34B-3
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.”
MT 13:54-58