Today’s readings: Exodus 24,3-8; Hebrews 9,11-15; Mark 14,12-16.22-26
Food glorious food! Simply put, it is one of the most palpable leitmotifs of the entire Bible. Fascinating books like A Taste of History – The Food of the Knights of Malta (Pamela Parkinson-Large) have their parallel versions dealing with numerous accounts in the Bible that speak about food, ranging from frugal meals to the most mouth-watering dishes offered in abundance to contented guests.
The Bible expresses the joy of table fellowship in myriads of ways. To mention but a few: God rains down quails from heaven on the Israelites and feeds them manna in the desert (Exodus 16); he promises a banquet of rich food for all peoples (Isaiah 25); the father of the prodigal son has the fattened calf prepared and throws him a party (Luke 15); Jesus feeds the four thousand (Mark 8) and the five thousand (Matthew 14); the shepherd finds his lost sheep and then feasts with his friends (Luke 15); God the shepherd takes his sheep to green pastures and flowing waters (Psalm 23); a king prepares a wedding feast for his son (Matthew 22); Jesus prepares breakfast for the disciples after the resurrection (John 21).
In a stereotypical fashion that is typical of a strict division of roles between the sexes, it has been suggested, naturally in jest, that Jesus may have been a woman since “he fed a crowd at a moment’s notice when there was no food”. The one who miraculously turned water into wine and fed the thousands was now going to push beyond the boundaries of intelligibility even more radically as he took the image of feeding to spine-tingling heights. He himself was to become food in the bread and wine he was about to share! The standard pagan belief in religions of the Ancient Near East that the gods had created human beings for these to offer them food was turned on its head by Jesus. In him, God had come not to be served by humanity, but to serve us and to give his very self as food for believers.
Unless one is simply ostentatious and eager to impress, the more sumptuous the meal and the more lavish one’s hospitality, the more evident is the honour in which a host holds the guests. The Holy Eucharist should make people stand in awe before the mystery of Christ’s humanity and divinity which it is. Yet, they should not be less fascinated by their own worth, which is the logical consequence elicited by this wondrous self-giving. The Eucharist speaks both about Christ and also about the esteem he has for us.
In an interview with Carl Stern in 1972, the eminent Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel asserted that the greatest message of the entire Hebrew Bible is that God takes humanity seriously. In saying so, since he was a Jew, Heschel was not including the unfathomable mysteries of the incarnation and the Eucharist. One can only imagine what he would have said about the Bible had he believed that God became man and that he also gave his flesh for the life of the world. We catch a glimpse of this truth in the words of the humble parish priest of Ars, Jean Vianney, whose holiness and passionate preaching touched the lives of innumerable people: he stated that it is impossible to surpass God in the inventions of love (cf. Writings and Instructions).
Sadly and ironically, the statement “This is my body” that is the foundational slogan used by pro-choice people to defend their right to take away life, is the very same statement used by our Lord Jesus Christ by which he imparted the most sublime gift of his own body in the most awesome act of generosity that was sealed as he gave his life on the cross.