Of Food and Drink
In the old covenant, under Mosiac Law, the dietary laws (kashrut) are well chronicled. Thus Professor Menachem Marc Kellner has referred to Judaism as “a religion of pots and pans in the eyes of those who derogate its concern with actions”. It is in Leviticus (chapter 11) and Deuteronomy (chapter 14) that the Israelites are instructed by Yahweh what they can 
consume.
Oddly, despite the centrality of the paschal meal as the Eucharistic offering by Jesus in the catholic Christian faith, the spirituality of diet is simply “missing”.
Faced with the growing health challenges brought about by illness, disease and human technology, interest groups have developed trends that borrow from the mysticism of the Orient to offer organic, biotic diets. The naturalness of these diets are safe and sound, without any extreme.
But when cancer is as great a threat to life, then what does the spirituality of a Christian diet suggest? Too much protein, fat, diary, eggs are just as mucous-causing as does the other extreme of the spectrum with sugar, and flour-foods. These mucous-causing foods as a category (described by macrobiotics) are harmful to the body cumulatively. The food-combining concept suggest similarly, but advocate separating food groups by their mineral content for effective digestion.
Whatever the dietary taxonomy, in Acts of the Apostles, Peter is described as feigning from hunger when he receives a heavenly vision of every kind of animal, reptile and bird being offered to him as food. An angelic voice is heard to say: “What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.” (Acts 10:13-15, also, Romans 14:14)
The kerygma here is that through Christ Jesus, all of creation is made anew (Revelation 21:5, Colossians 1:15), and through whom all things were created. Hence, once redeemed by the blood shed by Christ, creation is made anew, and offered true salvation. This grace is free and the Church cannot refuse to extend it to all creatures already glorified by the death and resurrection of Christ.
Fortunately, the Pauline epistles are a mine of anecdotes on “eating” and “drinking”.
“Then never let anyone criticise you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moons or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17)
In fact, just this chapter from Colossians (see verses 18-22), and you will gather the whole point about
Christian spirituality towards “diet”. The first thing the Apostle asserts is that we should not concern ourselves with vanity. This is key: for it means, do not be excessive and indulgent, or at the same time, overly scrupulous and fastidious, in order to be physically admired. Either way detracts from our preparation to be worthy of receiving “the Lord’s body”. In other words, if you truly believe you are about to receive the Lord in bread and wine at the Eucharistic meal, make yourself worthy in all ways.
It’s a strategy for the ideal Christian diet: eat nothing excessively, nor eat meagrely for vanity sake. These are harmful to the body. We can eat all things in moderation.
That is the true basis for the Oriental mystical approach towards a “balanced diet”, except that religious philosophies have influenced such discourse to take other forms of “extreme” abstinence.
In entreating the faithful to acknowledge the Divine Eucharist as the greatest food we ought to prepare ourselves to be worthy of receipt, the Apostle is teaching us about modesty in our diets. “I know how to live modestly… in every way now I have mastered the secret of all conditions: full stomach and empty stomach, plenty and poverty.” (Philippians 4:12)
Food is part of our new covenant – a sacred agreement between Yahweh and his people – and all food is mimicry for the real, which gives true life:
“I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
And the bread that I shall give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
You cannot escape from the fact that the Apostle John recorded the miracle of the feeding of the multitudes by the sea of Galilee, with twelve large baskets of scraps leftover from the meal of five barley loaves (John 6:1-14). Note that in this story, Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks (Greek, eucharistein) which is part of the Jewish custom of blessing, but doubtless, the symbolism is clear in the verse 27, which followed: “Do not work for food that goes bad,
but work for food that endures for eternal life.”
The attitude therefore is that our dietary ideals are subordinate to the spiritual goal our lives must shape towards.
Again, if receiving the Lord in the Eucharist is to be our humble objective, then we are to be constantly preparing ourselves to be worthy of reception.
The Eucharist is the heart and the summit of the Church’s life, for in it Christ associates his Church and all her members with his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the cross to his Father; by this sacrifice he pours out the graces of salvation on his Body which is the Church. (Catholic Catechism, The Celebration of the Christian Mystery, 1407).
And we must be in a state of grace (1415).
To this end, the Apostle Paul reiterates: “Therefore anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone is to examine himself and only then eat of the bread or drink from the cup; because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)
You would think those are pretty harsh words if it were just about food and drink.
Therefore, Christian spirituality does get rather specific about moderation and modesty towards our reception of food and drink, because it prepares us for the real meal which nourishes us for eternal life, the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.
“For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ; let us keep the feast, then, with none of the old yeast and no leavening of evil and wickedness, but only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7b-8)
By sincerity and truth, the Apostle is recommending that we live not by our natural inclinations (Romans 7:5) which will lead to corruption and death, but to by the Spirit, whose many gifts include fortitude and right judgement.
“Do not wreck God’s work for the sake of food.
Certainly all foods are clean; but all the same, any kind can be evil for someone to whom it is an offence to eat it… But anyone who eats with qualms of conscience is condemned, because this eating does not spring from faith – and every action which does not spring from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:14)
This is pretty incredible teaching about Christian diet: live and eat with faith. Excessive indulgence which wrecks our lives and health is the direct result of our disrespect for God’s providence. Now, it makes sense that gluttony is a sin, and on the other hand, vanity is too.
So, in a nutshell: eat prudently, modestly and always with respect of others, and this rule should only be applied with the attitude that we live only to be worthy to “feast” at the Lord’s Eucharist.
consume.Oddly, despite the centrality of the paschal meal as the Eucharistic offering by Jesus in the catholic Christian faith, the spirituality of diet is simply “missing”.
Faced with the growing health challenges brought about by illness, disease and human technology, interest groups have developed trends that borrow from the mysticism of the Orient to offer organic, biotic diets. The naturalness of these diets are safe and sound, without any extreme.
But when cancer is as great a threat to life, then what does the spirituality of a Christian diet suggest? Too much protein, fat, diary, eggs are just as mucous-causing as does the other extreme of the spectrum with sugar, and flour-foods. These mucous-causing foods as a category (described by macrobiotics) are harmful to the body cumulatively. The food-combining concept suggest similarly, but advocate separating food groups by their mineral content for effective digestion.
Whatever the dietary taxonomy, in Acts of the Apostles, Peter is described as feigning from hunger when he receives a heavenly vision of every kind of animal, reptile and bird being offered to him as food. An angelic voice is heard to say: “What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.” (Acts 10:13-15, also, Romans 14:14)
The kerygma here is that through Christ Jesus, all of creation is made anew (Revelation 21:5, Colossians 1:15), and through whom all things were created. Hence, once redeemed by the blood shed by Christ, creation is made anew, and offered true salvation. This grace is free and the Church cannot refuse to extend it to all creatures already glorified by the death and resurrection of Christ.
Fortunately, the Pauline epistles are a mine of anecdotes on “eating” and “drinking”.
“Then never let anyone criticise you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moons or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17)
In fact, just this chapter from Colossians (see verses 18-22), and you will gather the whole point about
Christian spirituality towards “diet”. The first thing the Apostle asserts is that we should not concern ourselves with vanity. This is key: for it means, do not be excessive and indulgent, or at the same time, overly scrupulous and fastidious, in order to be physically admired. Either way detracts from our preparation to be worthy of receiving “the Lord’s body”. In other words, if you truly believe you are about to receive the Lord in bread and wine at the Eucharistic meal, make yourself worthy in all ways.It’s a strategy for the ideal Christian diet: eat nothing excessively, nor eat meagrely for vanity sake. These are harmful to the body. We can eat all things in moderation.
That is the true basis for the Oriental mystical approach towards a “balanced diet”, except that religious philosophies have influenced such discourse to take other forms of “extreme” abstinence.
In entreating the faithful to acknowledge the Divine Eucharist as the greatest food we ought to prepare ourselves to be worthy of receipt, the Apostle is teaching us about modesty in our diets. “I know how to live modestly… in every way now I have mastered the secret of all conditions: full stomach and empty stomach, plenty and poverty.” (Philippians 4:12)
Food is part of our new covenant – a sacred agreement between Yahweh and his people – and all food is mimicry for the real, which gives true life:
“I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
And the bread that I shall give
is my flesh, for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
You cannot escape from the fact that the Apostle John recorded the miracle of the feeding of the multitudes by the sea of Galilee, with twelve large baskets of scraps leftover from the meal of five barley loaves (John 6:1-14). Note that in this story, Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks (Greek, eucharistein) which is part of the Jewish custom of blessing, but doubtless, the symbolism is clear in the verse 27, which followed: “Do not work for food that goes bad,
but work for food that endures for eternal life.”
The attitude therefore is that our dietary ideals are subordinate to the spiritual goal our lives must shape towards.
Again, if receiving the Lord in the Eucharist is to be our humble objective, then we are to be constantly preparing ourselves to be worthy of reception.
The Eucharist is the heart and the summit of the Church’s life, for in it Christ associates his Church and all her members with his sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the cross to his Father; by this sacrifice he pours out the graces of salvation on his Body which is the Church. (Catholic Catechism, The Celebration of the Christian Mystery, 1407).
And we must be in a state of grace (1415).
To this end, the Apostle Paul reiterates: “Therefore anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone is to examine himself and only then eat of the bread or drink from the cup; because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)
You would think those are pretty harsh words if it were just about food and drink.
Therefore, Christian spirituality does get rather specific about moderation and modesty towards our reception of food and drink, because it prepares us for the real meal which nourishes us for eternal life, the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.
“For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ; let us keep the feast, then, with none of the old yeast and no leavening of evil and wickedness, but only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7b-8)
By sincerity and truth, the Apostle is recommending that we live not by our natural inclinations (Romans 7:5) which will lead to corruption and death, but to by the Spirit, whose many gifts include fortitude and right judgement.
“Do not wreck God’s work for the sake of food.
Certainly all foods are clean; but all the same, any kind can be evil for someone to whom it is an offence to eat it… But anyone who eats with qualms of conscience is condemned, because this eating does not spring from faith – and every action which does not spring from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:14)
This is pretty incredible teaching about Christian diet: live and eat with faith. Excessive indulgence which wrecks our lives and health is the direct result of our disrespect for God’s providence. Now, it makes sense that gluttony is a sin, and on the other hand, vanity is too.
So, in a nutshell: eat prudently, modestly and always with respect of others, and this rule should only be applied with the attitude that we live only to be worthy to “feast” at the Lord’s Eucharist.
