Chapter 2

Phenomenology of Meal: A Means to

Understanding the Eucharist

In our own culture a child as young as three knows

that food and drink are required to celebrate human events.
The child knows that a birthday party needs cake and ice cream
and soft drinks as much as candles and presents and the song.
Food and drink are mysteriously linked to human life and its
milestones. Unfortunately, the picture of food and drink is
not always a pretty one. “Today about forty million American
adults (20 percent) are obese, and more than 55 percent of us
are overweight. Every year more than 280,000 people in the
U.S. die as a result of being overweight and obesity (which is
now the country’s second-leading cause of mortality) costs
our nation’s health care system nearly $240 billion.”1

FOOD AND DRINK IN THE BIBLE

The Bible reflects the same awareness of the crucial

and ethical importance of what we eat and drink. It is
interested in food and drink from its beginning in a garden to
its ending in a city: both have fruit trees and streams of water.
In the garden, as elsewhere in the Scriptures, the warning about
eating is portrayed in terms of life and death. The final triumph
of God’s kingdom and of God’s people finds a fitting symbol

1
Patrick T. McCormick, A Banqueter’s Guide to the All-Night Soup Kitchen
of the Kingdom of God (Collegevil, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2004), 15-6,
citing Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American
Meal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 241-42. See also Nathan Mitchell,
“Bread of Crisis, Bread of Justice, “Loving Worship 15/3 (March 1979): 1.
16 1
in the meal of meals. “Happy are they who have been invited
to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).2

Food and drink in the Bible often reflect God’s care.

“You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes” (Ps.
23:5). “You produce bread from the earth and wine to gladden
our hearts” (Ps. 104:15). Fests are crucial in Israel’s life and
history. God demands through Moses, “Let my people go,
that they may celebrate a feast to me in the desert” (Ex. 5:1).
Festive meals seal covenants (Ex. 24:11b) and kings are
enthroned to the tune of a joyful meal (1 Chron. 29:22). At
the same time, these feasts, these meals, call the people to live
a certain way in keeping with their promises. Meals also point
to the future promise, when all will have their share of food
and drink. “On this holy mountain the Lord God will provide
for all peoples a feast of rich foods and choice wines, juicy,
rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will
destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven
over all nations, he will destroy death forever” (Is. 25:6-7).3

Since food and drink and meals are so important, we

would do well to follow Paul Ricoeur’s suggestions for creative
interpretation of symbols by seeing what our human
experience of these realities has to tell us. At the same time it
might help to let our imagination come into play.4

As we have noted, food can speak to us of God’s

concern that quietly, in the stillness of night, provides unseen

2
See John Burkhart, Worship: A Searching Examination of the Liturgical
Experience (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982), 79, 81.
3
Ibid., 80-81, and Mitchell, “Bread of Crisis,” 2-3.
4
See John H. McKenna, “Symbol and Reality: Some Anthropological
Considerations,” Worship, 65 (January 1991): 25-26. See also Andrew B.
McGowan, Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual
Meals (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 1-7.
2 15
still consider sharing a meal as an effective reconciliation and growth. God it is who takes the initiative: “You water the
refusing to eat with someone as a symbol of enmity.27 mountains from your palace; the earth is replete with the fruit
of your works. You raise grass for the cattle, and vegetables
Another type of ritual meal is a memorial meal. This for our use, producing bread from the earth and wine to
recalls and, in a sense, relives an event in the history of a god gladden our hearts, so that our faces gleam with oil and bread
or an intervention of a god in favour of the people. The fortifies our hearts” (Ps. 104:13-15). An early Christian prayer
purpose of the memorial meal is to recall and somehow to found in the Didache reflects a similar emphasis on God’s
enter into the event or the intervention. This takes place in creative initiative: “As this bread that is broken was scattered
word (telling the story, giving an instruction) and in action upon the mountains, and gathered together, and became one,
(partaking of the meal).28 so let thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the
earth into thy kingdom.”5
Obviously the writer’s and reader’s respective
backgrounds (cultural, religious, educational, etc.) color Granted that the experience may vary with differing
reflections like those in this chapter. But such reflections can cultures, food can also speak to us of people. It can speak of
enable us to draw on our own experience, “cleanse the Doors the sweat of their brows, the strength of their arms, the
of Perception,”29 and gain new insight into the many-faceted swiftness of their minds in producing food. This may be
wonder of the symbols with which we celebrate. especially true in a hunting or agricultural society but also in
a technological setting when you reflect on what goes into
packaging, advertising, and selling food products.6

5
Gustave Martelet, The Riven Christ and the Eucharistic World, trans. R.
Hague (New York: Seabury Press, 1976), 32, citing the Didache (The
Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles), trans. C. Bigg and A.J. Maclean (London:
SPCK, 1922), IX, 4, 27-28. See also McCormick, A Banqueter’s Guide,
28-29.
27
See Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 135-36; 6
See Martelet, The Risen Christ, 32-33. The optional blessing prayers at
van der Leeuw, Sakramentales Denken, 119-20; and Leyerle, “Meal the presentation of the gifts in the Roman Catholic rite bring out both
Customs in the Greco-Roman World,” 36. the divine and the human aspects: “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all
28
See Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 136. creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which
29
Victor Turner, “Passages, Margins, and Poverty: Religious Symbols of earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the
Communitas,” Worship 46 (Oct. 1972): Part II, 483, in the context of bread of life.” “Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through
the initiation process’s ability to help the initiated persons see things your goodness we have this wine to offer, fruit of the vine and work of
anew. human hands. It will become our spiritual drink.”
14 3
 Food also speaks to us of life and death. Our words to share in the power of the god the bear represented.23 Once
for eating places like “refectory” or “restaurant” remind us of a year in Ireland the king and noblemen ate pork symbolizing
food’s ability to restore, and remake. The experience of famine their god Lug. They thus hoped to rule with his power.24
or hunger, whether chronic or occasional, gives people a sense Similarly, in Greece the followers of the god Dionysius would
of the fragility of existence at times and provokes anxiety about eat a bull, the animal whose appearance Dionysius would eat
its cessation. Even children can tell you what bellies swollen a bull, the animal whose appearance Dionysius adopted to
from starvation will lead to. Moreover, to nourish us something escape the Titans.25 The Aztecs, prior to the Spanish conquest
must die—whether animal or vegetable—its existence must under Cortez in 1519, would eat sacred bread. The grain that
be in a sense sacrificed.7 had “died and risen” symbolized god. The Aztecs formed the
bread into a human shape and distributed it twice a year at
Food, or the absence of it, can also speak to us of love. their solemn festivals. The priests would also take it to the
The archetype of a mother feeding a child comes to mind sick who were unable to attend the feast. Van de Leeuw sees
here. Psychologists are quick to remind us that, if basic needs gingerbread men and women as vestiges of such ancient
are not met, it is impossible or extremely difficult to relate practices.26
intimately. And, conversely, emotionally needy persons
sometimes try to compensate by compulsive eating. A third type of ritual meal took the form of sharing a
meal with the gods. The people would divide the immolated
Thirst also has powerful connotations, especially when victim. Often they reserved the choice portions, for instance,
we are talking not simply about ordinary thirst that can be the blood or fatty portions (considered the seats of life, feeling)
easily quenched. The image of someone lost in the desert for the gods. These parts went to the gods by being burnt or
searching in vain for water better illustrates the point. Drink eaten by the priests while the people ate the other part. The
is even more urgent than food since thirst puts a person in sharing was a sign of peace and communion among the
danger of death much more quickly than hunger. Speaking sharers. It was also a necessary complement to sealing a pact
metaphorically of a person having a hunger or thirst for power, or alliance, whether the partners were equal or not. The
wealth, justice, knowledge, or happiness epitomizes deep German sagas and Lawrence of Arabia’s experience
human longings. Such imagery also lies at the root of much mentioned above exemplify this understanding. Some cultures
religious symbolism. For instance, “O God, you are my God
whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts, like
the earth, parched, lifeless and without water” (Ps. 63:2) or “I

23
See van der Leeuw, Sakramentales Denken, 122. For a graphic portrayal
of such a ritual process see Jean Auel’s novel Clan of the Cave Bear, 405-
17.
7
See Philippe Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,”
24
See Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 135.
in R. Kevin Seasoltz, ed., Living Bread, Saving Cup: Redings on the Eucharist
25
Ibid.,
(Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1987), 127-28.
26
See ibid., and van der Leeuw, Sakramentales Denken, 122.

4 13
RITUAL MEALS myself am the bread of life. No one who comes to me shall
ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall ever thirst”
In addition to reflecting on “ordinary” human meals, (Jn. 6:35).8
it would be helpful to turn our attention to some types of
ritual meals. Rouillard describes four categories. BREAD AND WINE

One type involves a ritual in which the people are Bread and wine in particular form powerful symbols
“eaten by the gods.” The underlying idea of these sacrifices is for many cultures.9 Bread can symbolize the benefits earned
that the divinity has a right to demand a person’s life to nourish by human labor: “By the sweat of your face shall you get bread
that divinity just as people have the right to sacrifice the lives to eat” (Gen. 3:19). Bread can also symbolize life and death.
of animals to nourish their own lives. Instead of immolating After an apparent death and a time of gestation or
themselves people immolated some victim, for instance, a germination, grain emerges a hundred fold. We then crush it,
prisoner, an infant, an animal. The life of the victim was thus grind and knead it (practically annihilate it) and then bring it
sacrificed in place of those offering the sacrifice who, although together to form one loaf. We also connect many family and
they ought to offer themselves, understandably shrank from social values with the baking and sharing of bread, and this
giving their own lives in homage to the gods. This kind of leads to a certain sense of reverence and union.10 In this context
replacement was behind the Phoenicians’ sacrifice of their Burkhart remarks: “The crucial term ‘lord,’ filled as it is with
sons to Moloch, Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac (replaced theological, social, and political overtones, is derived from
by an animal), and some tribal customs in times of an
epidemic. This also underlies initiation rites that involve some
form of ritual death by going into a cave or cabin or hole,
then emerging after several days (digestion period) and being 8
Ibid.
replaced by the immolation of some animal.22 9
See Jan Michael Joncas, “Tasting the Kingdom of God: The Meal
Ministry of Jesus and Its Implications for Contemporary Worship and
Another type is a ritual in which the people eat the Life,” Worship 74 (July 2000): 337, “Perhaps the most important
gods. Almost every religion holds out to its followers a share conclusion to draw from this consideration of what Greeks and Romans
in the power, energy, life or immortality of the divinity. To ate and drank is that a meal could consist simply of bread (the staple)
obtain this one often has to “eat the god.” How? Usually this and water or wine (the drink); one added relishes to this foundation
involves eating an animal or plant that symbolizes the god. In
meal as inclination or finances allowed.”
northern Japan the people raised a bear, then killed it an ate it 10
See Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 128-29,
and Gerardus van der Leeuw, Sakramentales Denken: Erscheinungsformen
Und Wesen Der Ausserchristlichen Und Christlichen Sakramente, trans from
the Dutch by E. Schwarz (Kassell: J. Stauda, 1959), 115, 118-20. See
also Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered (New York: Orbis Books,
22
See Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 133-34. 1978), 60-61, for an African example of sharing food as an efficacious
See also Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation, xii-xv, 18-20, 35-37. symbol of forgiveness.

12 5
loaf + ward, ‘keeper of bread.’ A lord is one upon whom you support for those grieving. Obviously, the attitudes people
depend for sustenance, life given in a meal.”11 bring to a meal are crucial. As Mary Douglas, the social
anthropologist, reminds us, “Food is not feed . . . [and] to
Wine connotes vigor, vitality, life, earning it such titles treat food as feed, thereby rejecting the human dimensions of
as “the water of life,” “the nectar of the gods,” “the drink of meals, is to ‘make a pig out of oneself.’ Those who eat hastily,
immortality,” Especially when it is red, wine is naturally indifferent to those about them, are said to wolf down their
compared to blood, the source and symbol of life, and is food.”20 Burkhart notes the bond between meals and social
therefore ideally suited to ritual libations. A popular restaurant solidarity by remarking that the root metaphor for sociability
in Manhattan introduces its wine list with quotes about wine is companionship. And companionship, “from cum + panis,
attributed to great names. “Wine is the drink of Gods” (Plato). ‘breading together,’ is a distinctively human activity, and is
“Wine rejoices the human heart and joy is the mother of all the essence of community.” While animals may grab a hunk
virtues” (Goethe). “Where there is no wine, there is no love” of meat and run off to gnaw it by themselves or crowd together
(Euripides). I am told that there is also an Italian saying: “A to gobble food from a trough, people come together to eat
meal without wine is like a kiss without love.” “companionately.”21

Different languages attest to alcohol’s ability to Attitude is in many ways more important than the food.
stimulate the spirit, to break down barriers, give a sense of Have you ever seen a child who has just been rebuked at table
peace, and joy (in English spirits, in French spiritueux, spiritoso trying to swallow the food? Or have you ever experienced the
in Italian, and geistiges Getränk in German).12 Drinking from reconciling power of a good meal with people who otherwise
the same cup, “clinking” or touching glasses, the Jewish are at enmity with one another? The movie Babbette’s Feast is a
wedding ritual of having the couple drink from the same glass classic example of this latter situation.
and then breaking it as a symbol of their special relationship
all reflect a sense of comradeship or union.13 The firm also underscores the importance of
preparation in creating a good human experience of meal.
EATING AND DRINKING And preparation takes time and a patient maturity—
something a “gulp and gallop” culture finds difficult. But those
Human beings have taken these elements (or others who make the time to light a candle or two, arrange some
like them) and made them into a meal that can speak to us in flowers, pour a glass of wine, and engage in conversation are
so many ways. A so-called primitive understanding, with many often richly rewarded.

11
Burkhart, Worship 79. See also John Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments
(New York: Continuum, 1999) on the centrality of bread. 20
Burkhart, Worship, 76, citing Mary Douglas’s Introduction to Jessica
12
Rouillard, “From Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 129-30.
Kuper, ed., The Anthropologists’ Cookbook (Universe Books, 1977), 7.
13
See van der Leeuw, Sakramentales Denken, 116-18, and Rouillard, “From 21
Burkhart, Worship, 76.
Human Meal to Christian Eucharist,” 130.

6 11
stories. It was a celebration and a learning experience. We modern vestiges, saw eating and drinking to relieve hunger
learned manners, respect, listening. The stories gave us a sense and thirst as bringing people into contact with the gods. Van
of our history, our plans, our achievements. The overall der Leeuw maintains that the prescriptions for the preparation
purpose of the day was to thank God for many blessings and, of food and drink which fill the pages of the history of religions
consciously or unconsciously, to ask God to continue those stem from a sense, in whatever religion, that eating and
blessings. drinking put people in contact with powers beyond them, with
holy powers. “Don’t play with good food” may well reflect
Thanksgiving is also a day when we understood that this sense.14
those less fortunate should also be able to celebrate something
special. I know an immigrant family who when they first Among “primitive” people drinking beer or wine was
arrived in the United States lived in a garage with little to often linked to enhanced joy in living (Lebensfreude) and deeper
sustain them. As Thanksgiving approached the mother put insights into life. Furthermore, numerous cultures saw such
aside some tomatoes and rice, so that they could have drinking not only as strengthening life but also as the means
something special for that day. The evening before of coming into contact with the gods. It is this contact that
Thanksgiving a woman with an infant in her arms appeared links drink with immortality. Drinking together, then, led to
and asked for some food. With tears in her eyes the mother community, to joy, to new insights into life (hence the use of
shared what she had been saving for a special “treat.” The ritual “drunkenness” in initiation rites), to a sense of
mother really understood much about Thanksgiving.19 Happily immortality, and to love because it put people in touch with
the next day some local sisters arrived with a full Thanksgiving gods and godlike powers. The “magic potions” of the sagas
dinner and job offers for her and her husband. and fairy-tales are remnants of the sacramental sense of the
mystical powers of any drink. Van de Leeuw argues further
There are many other characteristics of human meals that even industrialized societies have such remnants of
that could help in our understanding of Eucharist. According “pansacramentalism.”15
to some, at least, they can be solitary as well as communal. I
also know of a mother who insists that the children eat first Eating too had special meaning for “primitive” people.
and go to bed so that she and her husband can share one It expressed and built community. In German sagas, for
another’s company in peace. Her sister, on the other hand, instance, having eaten even with an enemy meant that you
wants the whole family to eat together. There are formal and could not kill him. Lawrence of Arabia once narrated how
informal meals: with wine, that can add something, or without; such an understanding saved his life. Eating in such a setting
everyday and special, peak experiences, when people dress was not just bodily nourishment but “soul stuff ”; it had life-
up and go to a “fancy” restaurant; happy ones like weddings giving, unifying power. Moreover, already in primitive societies
and less happy like the meal following a funeral to express

14
See van der Leeuw, Sakramentales Denken, 115-16.
19
What a wonderful example of “eucharistic hospitality.” See McCormick,
15
Ibid., 116-18.
A Banqueter’s Guide, 48-50, for early Christian examples.
10 7
there was a sense that, although every food means life-giving origin.”17 Since they are so personal, and can imply kinship
power, a consecration, a blessing, an exorcism enhances this or quasi kinship, meals are also the place for setting limits, for
power. This represents a move from pansacramentalism example, what we will eat, how much, and with whom.18
(which sees any eating as “eating god”) to a sacramentalism
that narrows down the field of the sacred or underlines certain In some cultures to invite someone to your home for
moments, events, places, or things as especially sacred.16 dinner signals firm friendship and consequent social
obligations. Even in cultures with less formal implications for
HUMAN MEALS meals, when dating shows signs of becoming serious a family
will often invite the girlfriend or boyfriend to diner. Meals
In our own “modern” societies, even allowing for great also accompany celebrations of love grown to the point where
cultural diversity, we have taken food and drink and made the couple wishes to marry or love that has aged and mellowed
them into a meal that speaks to us with many voices. through twenty-five or fifty years of marriage.
Salespersons and business people, for example, often use a
meal to “soften up” a client or to seal an agreement (this staple Families and nations often express thanks, hope of
of many an expense account is both functional and relational). future prosperity, and appreciation for past and present
Neighbors welcome newcomers and say good-by with a meal. blessings, with meals or banquets (where hopefully the food
and drink are good and the speeches brief). For myself our
“Lovers and other strangers” express interest, even love, family’s Thanksgiving dinner was a good example of the
by eating and drinking together. They also deepen that love richness and meaning of meal. The whole family gathered
through the sharing of meals. This may account for feelings together. We shared; each would bring something to contribute
of jealousy one partner often has upon hearing that the other to the meal—wine, a pie, éclairs, etc. Different people played
partner is taking someone else out to dinner. Meals express different roles. Some cooked. One uncle cut the turkey and
relationship and deepen it. Burkhart cites French sociologist told corny jokes. Someone poured the wine. A number told
Émile Durkheim: “In a multitude of societies, meals taken in
common are believed to create a bond of artificial kinship
between those who assist at them. In fact, relatives are people 17
Burkhart, Worship 77, citing Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of the
who are naturally made of the same flesh and blood. But food
Religious Life, trans. J.W. Swain (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1915),
is constantly remaking the substance of the organism. So a
378.
common food may produce the same effects as a common 18
Burkhart, Worship 78, citing Mary Douglas’s study of English middle-
class meal customs. See also Blake Leyerle, “Meal Customs in the Greco-
Roman World,” in Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman,
Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times (= vol. 5 of Two
Liturgical Traditions) (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press,
16
Ibid., 120-21. See also Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The 1999), 37, who notes that participants in Graeco-Roman meals though
Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth, trans. W.R. Trask (New York: Harper & not related by blod often used kinship language (see also 39, 45), and
Row, 1958), v-xv, 13-20. Joncas, “Tasting the Kingdom of God,” 338.
8 9