When portions were served to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as much as anyone else's. So they feasted and drank freely with him.
–Genesis 43:34
Like a good meal, faith takes thought and preparation, but ultimately it is meant to be enjoyed. Faith is how you feast on the fullness of what it means to be a human being. It is how you fill your soul with the energy you need to live like eating at a richly filled table.
A lack of faith can lead to a spiritual hunger so debilitating it can feel like starvation. Starving for faith can be as harmful as starving for food because finding ways to feed your soul is a far greater mystery than visiting the kitchen.
Viewing a feast in this way, the Last Supper takes on a whole different meaning. Guests around this table were feasting on the body and blood of Christ, in communion with him because they needed more than bread and wine.
The French derivation of the word "companion" is "with bread." It is in this light that the extinction of the family dinner table and the proliferation of "fast food" are most tragic. It is the love of Christ that the disciples most needed, and it is love from others, simple companionship, that so many of us need today; and yet it is missing.
Like Jesus and his disciples, a spiritual feast begins with food and a conversation. If the way to a person's heart is through their stomach, a good meal and good conversation may be the most spiritual experience we can have.
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
–Ernest Hemingway
Where are the places where you feast on more than bread and wine?
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