Holy Feasting

Last week's article talked about holy feasting. I want to continue that thought with part two, looking at an ancient heresy and a parable of Christ. The heresy has manifested itself in several heretical groups, and despite its ardent rejection by the Church, it has crept into the corners where its skeleton remains. Here, I am speaking of the belief that the physical is bad and the spiritual good. This view was most prominent in the early heresies of Gnosticism and Manicheanism and inherent in the Christological heresy of monophysitism. If you are not familiar with those heresies, fret not, there is no final test. Each of these heresies sought to teach that it is the physical that keeps you down and that you must cast off these worldly shackles to gain true knowledge or live a better life. An easy test to see how prevalent this thinking is to ask the question, "What happens after death?" To which many Christians will reply, "Our bodies stay on earth and our souls go to heaven where we shall remain with Christ forever." So, the end goal is to leave our bodies behind? What about the Resurrection of the Dead or New Heavens and New Earth? Why did Christ need to be incarnate, and why would God create us with bodies and call them "very good" if our bodies were bad? This is where the Great Tradition and our Anglican tradition help us, it recognizes that what we do with our body matters, both in the liturgy, how we live, and how we fast and feast, especially how we feast.

When we speak of feasting, I think there is a genuine and right reaction in response to it. We live in a culture where we never stop feasting. Everything is provided to us in excess quantities and at our fingertips. Gluttony, greed, lust, waste, disorder, and misuse are the cornerstones of a consumeristic society. Additionally, there is a problem when we feast as a coping mechanism rather than in celebration and thanksgiving. I think it is right that we should be aware of this and seek to avoid these trappings. However, let's not "throw the baby out with the bath water." If we reject all feasting, we are left with fasting, which quickly moves in the direction that the physical is only bad and must be curbed and done away with. We cease to call God's creation good, let alone "very good." In effect, we separate the Resurrection from the Incarnation. We look to the hope of casting off these earthly bonds rather than seeing creation recreated and reordered to God. By rightly fasting and feasting, we recognize that things are not the way they are supposed to be, but we also see the work of God in the world and seek him. Feasting in a holy manner counters those dualistic heresies, rightly orders all things to God, and teaches us to see Christ working in our midst so that we might rejoice and be thankful for his work and good gifts. So, when we fast, let us do so in all sincerity, but when we feast, let us do so with a lavish appetite for worship and thanksgiving.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, upon the return of the son from the wanton waste of his inheritance, he comes back to his father, willing to be treated as a servant and no longer worthy to be called a son. Yet, the father responds, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." The father's response is to feast. However, the elder brother is angry that such extravagance is displayed for the younger brother, who has been faithful and has never feasted in such a way. To which the father replies, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." The parable given by Jesus in Luke 15 stands as a rebuke to the Pharisees' criticism of Jesus eating with sinners. The Pharisees are the elder son and the sinners, who dine with Christ, are the prodigal son who have returned, and so they feast.

Within this parable, I think there is another layer that has something to say to us. We are the prodigal son who has returned. When we feast, we do so around important liturgical events, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc. These days remind us of the lavish and ostentatious love of God, they remind us that we are invited to feast with Christ because he has called us to the table to sit and be satiated. In our feasts, we are reminded of God's work of all things being rightly ordered. Creation is being made new, the lost are brought home, and the sinners are redeemed. The physical world is wrapped up in the redemption of God as well, not just the spiritual. The Son took on flesh and became man so that humanity, in all its physical attributes, would be healed. So, when we properly feast, in the overflow of thanksgiving, we join creation to its right order in worship of God. Our feasting is the denial of a dualistic heresy and the proclamation of God's redemption of all creation. As St Paul reminds us, "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."

God's Peace,

Fr. Aaron