As he frequently does, Jesus is speaking “to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables,” telling of a banquet prepared in great abundance. “Everything is ready” and the invitation is sent out to all, “Come to the feast.”
Feasts like the one in the Gospel of a coming wedding highlight sharing. Everyday feasts of family and friends sharing a meal provide belonging and create home. Sharing meals in our homes is the usual behavior of people throughout history. Scholars think people first started dining out in China just after the turn of the first millennia. Active trading and merchants meant an active city center that included restaurants. Dining out was popularized in 18th century Paris. It is associated with an elite and delicate clientele seeking elite and delicate foods made by skilled chefs. The food consumed was thus different from that consumed by common people, for example, living on their farms. Though farmers too, especially women, were also skilled chefs preparing delicious meals from the food available to them. All through history, common people living on farms dined ‘out’ routinely – out on their porches, under their porticos, in their fields. Periodically the meals would be full community feasts. It gave people who might be at odds the opportunity to break bread together and be at peace – always a good practice. In the U.S., food prepared by artists, in restaurants or in the home, and shared communally were met with fierce competition when processed packaged food laced with chemicals were developed following WWII K-rations. Big Agriculture bought up farms for monocropping and used heavy doses of chemical pesticides. In 1962 Rachel Carson wrote her highly influential book, Silent Spring. In it, she explored the harm of chemicals; inserted into food, sprayed on the land, let loose in the environment, and consequentially ingested by people resulting in ill health. The U.S., especially, is still suffering the diminished nutritional effects of processed packaged food with its various chemical additives. A result of Carson’s book was a greater consciousness among people about their food and the benefits of local, sustainable, healthy growing of food. Organic farming started to spread. It was at this time that the Farm to Table Movement also began. Restaurant chefs began to connect with farmers and farm communities for shared meals. Meals as abundant feasts in shared communal experiences flourished again. The Farm to Table Movement has 4 primary values. The first value is providing people and whole communities with food security because developing a local food system feeds those who tend to be poor and marginalized. The second value is growing healthy relationships between all the people in a food system, including farmers, customers, restaurants, and chefs. The third value is strengthening each food community to meet their own needs so as to eliminate reliance on external factors, especially associated with Big Ag, that when threatened, threaten the community’s existence. The Fourth value is sustainability to ensure future farmers can meet their food needs too. The earth has much to offer if we are willing to receive her abundance and peacefully share in that abundance. We can actively transcend rulers who inhibit our peaceful sharing of life and basic necessities like food. Like the earth we can share with others, especially around food, and build up healthy communities across any imposed divisions.
“This is a time of unrestrained climate catastrophe, unimaginable violence, and unmistakable signals to reorder our world to value the sanctity of all life. This is a time of endless abundance from the land, and limitless labor harvesting, distributing and preserving food, saving seeds, and drying herbs… we recommit to collaborating with the Earth and our communities to create a more balanced and livable future. (Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, we are grateful to receive life as a feast shared with others.
Question: What can I do to initiate or share in more community meals.
October 15, 2023 Gospel Matthew 22:1-14 Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time