10/15/2023 - 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

FAST OR FEAST? – SCRIPTURE’S ANSWER TO THE DILEMMA
“Babette’s Feast” (1958) is one of the best-known short stories by Danish author Karen Blixen. “Babette’s Feast” (the movie is equally spectacular) focuses on themes of physical and spiritual nourishment, religious devotion, and artistic achievement. In a remote 19th-century Danish village, two sisters lead a rigid life centered around their father, who is the honored pastor of a small Protestant church that is almost a sect unto itself. Both girls had opportunities to leave the village: one could have married a young army officer and the other, a French opera singer. Their father objected in each case, and they spent their lives caring for him till his death. The story follows two religious sisters whose lives and community are altered forever when their French refugee maid, Babette, wins a lottery and uses her winnings to prepare a sumptuous French feast for her ascetic mistresses and their congregation. By showing the transformative effects of Babette’s culinary artistry on the dinner guests, Blixen demonstrates the importance of both spiritual piousness and earthly passion in letting go of regret and living happily.

Notice similarities to the huge feast we hear about in the First Reading. There we find the famous invitation from the Lord of Hosts, full of unstinting promise. “A feast of rich food and choice wines,” Isaiah says. A great feast, a “groaning board” in the language of medieval England, just like the banquet in Babette’s Feast.

The Gospel reading on Sunday is also a delicious meal. The King prepares his finest livestock for a feast by fattening them up, seasoning them, and getting them ready to cook. Look what happened if you thought the people of Babette's town were hesitant. Some people in Jesus’ story, flat-out refused to go. And some "laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them," as if the invitation had never been extended or they were offended by it. After punishing them, the king opened the palace to the homeless.

Food is something to be savored, not rejected. Do we have it too good when the world elsewhere has it too bad? We are under constant pressure to forego all things fatty and juicy. It's not just about the food, either. It's possible to get the same impression from work, marriage, and children. Jesus, after all, did not just fast. At the outset of His public ministry, He fasted for forty days; however, He later said, "the Son of Man came eating and drinking—and they said, 'Look, He is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners'" (Mt. 11:19). Only by taking pleasure in social gatherings over food could He have earned His stellar reputation.

The Hebrew Bible situated both fasting and feasting in the context of one basic trust: It is God who gives life; it is God who gives food. Belief in that fact preserved a balance of fasting and feasting in the people’s life. Failure to remember that fact led to legalism in fasting and to excess in feasting. Scripture is filled with references of feasts and banquets. Ultimately, the heavenly banquet, the wedding banquet of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9), is the final destination of the spiritual journey. This biblical reference is about our ultimate union with God and the consummation of that singular joy. It’s why our solemnities are usually (but not always) holy days of obligation—because our joy culminates in the holy sacrifice of the Mass—and why we are canonically forbidden to fast or abstain on Sundays and other holy days!

Therefore, feasting is a spiritual practice. This is our bodily expression of praise to the Lord. We are more than just our souls. To be sure, we are more than just physical beings. We worship God with our whole selves, body, and soul because we are composite beings. This is why the liturgy consists of more than just singing and reciting prayers. We also take various stances, such as sitting, standing, kneeling, bowing, and genuflecting. The spiritual is intimately connected to the physical. Taking a posture of worship prepares one's soul for worship. That's how it works for us, creatures who are both physical and ethereal. The use of memory in the Christian sense is not just a remembering of the past, but a certain remembering that makes what is past also present here and now. It’s a way of sanctifying time by connecting it with the light of the eternal and experiencing it now. 

So, what's it going to be, a fast or a feast?  Both. Besides our own ability to enter into the beatific vision one day, there is an evangelical quality to an authentic Christian feasting culture—for what converted the early Church in the first place but joy? That’s the joy that persisted even in the face of terrible persecution . . . and it’s the joy that should animate all of us through all the days of our lives.

Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O.