At the Lamb’s High Feast
An essay by Joshua Brumfield, Ph.D.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word said, "Let there be," and it was, and it was good. The Word of God who narrated Creation also spoke to a man named John, proclaiming, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending … which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” The Word who is the Alpha and the Omega spoke through Abraham when He told Isaac that the Lord Himself would provide the Lamb, and He communicated to Moses’ people that the Blood of the Lamb would save them from death. John the Baptist pointed to His cousin, the Alpha and the Omega, and said to the crowds, “Behold the Lamb of God.” And the Lamb who is Love and is “Him who takes away the sins of the world” calls you and me “to the supper of the Lamb.”
At Mass, the Lamb eucharistically transports us to three key moments in salvation history, in our story, which finds its hoped for goal in the heavenly festival day. First, just as the Baptizer calls his disciples to recognize Jesus as the Christ, as the New and True sacrificial lamb, so we are invited to recognize in the Host “the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.” Second, we are made participants in the Last Supper. Jesus welcomes us to that table in the Upper Room where He fulfilled the Passover Sacrifice and the Passover Feast. Finally, we are sacramentally brought to the eschatological future, to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. What’s more, the Lamb who was slain is victorious. He has “conquered in the tide flowing from his pierced side.” His victory is our victory. His victory in battle was fought for the sake of the wedding. The sacrifice is for the sake of the feast. This calls to mind the festive nuptial imagery of John’s Revelation:
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of great thunders, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord our God, the omnipotent, hath reigned. Let us be glad and rejoice: and give glory to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself. And to her it is granted, that she should clothe herself with fine linen, glittering and white. For the fine linen are the justifications of saints. And he said to me: Write: Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The Eucharist, then, is both a participation in and an anticipation of this heavenly banquet. This festival theme should not surprise us; after all, Our Lord, at the invitation of his Mother, chose to launch his public ministry at a wedding feast and chose the Passover Feast as his hour. Grace heals, builds upon, and perfects nature. The Lamb who is the Word wrote festivity into the fabric of human society. Every culture has its festivals, and all festivals worthy of the name are at root a profound “Yes” to life, to Creation, to the world. Ratzinger once explained, “whenever I am able to say Yes, I can celebrate a feast; whenever I am able to say Yes, I am (to that extent) free, liberated. Christian prayer holds the key to making the whole world a celebration, a feast.”
All true feasts are marked by communal joy, a liberation from the normal constraints and anxieties of daily life. They are, in a certain sense, a waste of time; they are unproductive, prodigal, and sometimes raucous. They feature copious amounts of food and drink. Consider the feasts of Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, the communal celebrations surrounding Mardi Gras or the Super Bowl Parade. Yet all these celebrations are marked by a tragic character. For we know they are momentary interruptions. We know sin and death still await us. This is what sets apart our Eucharistic participation in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. “The novel Christian reality is this: Christ’s Resurrection enables man genuinely to rejoice. All history until Christ has been a fruitless search for this joy. That is why the Christian liturgy—Eucharist—is, of its essence, the Feast of the Resurrection.” Isaiah foretold of the link between choice wines and death’s defeat:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
A feast of rich food 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.
The Lord GOD will wipe away
the tears from all faces
Thus we are truly moved to rejoice and celebrate.
It is right and just that the Eucharistic community gather to celebrate a festival meal. Perhaps during the oft-forgotten Christmas season or the long and glorious Eastertide, or for the parish’s patronal feast, the faithful should gather and have a party, with copious amounts of food and drink.
Yes, the wedding feast of the Lamb is a celebration of victory and joy. It is the culmination of God's redemptive plan, where all creation is united in a harmonious and eternal communion.
The themes of food and festivity in Christian tradition are vividly brought to life in Isak Dinesen's "Babette's Feast." This story, set in a remote Danish village, tells of a French refugee, Babette, who prepares a lavish feast for a strict “puritan” religious community, skeptical of the pleasures of good food and drink. The meal she creates is not just a culinary masterpiece but a transformative experience for the villagers. Through the feast, Babette brings joy, reconciliation, and a sense of divine grace to the community. The story echoes the Eucharistic theme of a meal that transcends mere sustenance, becoming a sacrament of love and unity.
In "Babette's Feast," the act of sharing a meal becomes a moment of grace and revelation. The villagers, initially wary of the extravagant feast, find themselves transformed by the experience. Their hearts are opened, old grievances are forgotten, and they are united in a newfound sense of community. This mirrors the Eucharistic celebration, where the faithful are drawn together in a sacred meal that transcends earthly divisions. But who of us has not also experienced an inkling of this at a great crawfish boil, Mardi Gras celebration, or Easter feast?
Food and drink play a central role in Christian festivity, symbolizing the abundance of God's blessings and the joy of communal life. From the Passover meal to the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, the Bible is replete with images of feasting and celebration. These moments of festivity are not just about physical nourishment but about experiencing the fullness of life in communion with God and one another.
If we aim to better remember the future feast and be members of that wedding party, we do well to communally enjoy rich foods and choice wines - precisely as church. In this way we will better reap the natural gifts of festivity and be better prepared to receive the graced gifts of the Eucharist so that we can be transformed and sanctified in sharers in the Lamb’s High Feast.
Joshua Brumfield is the author of The Benedict Proposal: Church as Creative Minority in the Thought of Pope Benedict XVI. He is a teacher at John Paul the Great Academy in Lafayette, LA.