I recently decided to pursue a hobby in the culinary arts with greater seriousness, and began to practise in my leisure hours certain classic culinary techniques so as to level up and prepare for the time when I would eventually join some cooking competition somewhere, somehow, and have my face printed on the tins of biscuits or travel cakes sold in supermarkets everywhere. I mean how difficult is it to pull forth a tray of perfectly crisp choux pastry? Well, I practised, the steps were correct, the mixture looked right… and as I pulled out the tray after the beeper went off, my choux pastry also decided at that glorious time to stage a perfect coup d’état, and in impeccable synchronicity deflated promptly like sad, expired helium balloons without a clown.
The kitchen is indeed a practical and training ground for patience and humility.
As St. Teresa of Avila used to candidly say, “Oh then, my daughters, let there be no neglect: but when obedience calls you to exterior employments (as, for example, into kitchen, amidst the pots and dishes), remember that our Lord goes along with you, to help you both in your interior and exterior duties.” (Kosloski 2019).
I am reminded that the Lord God has a sense of humour, and that He is indeed among the pots and pans.
One of my favourite scenes from Scripture features Jesus cooking for His disciples: “When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish you just caught.’ So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, ‘Come, have breakfast.’ And none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they realised it was the Lord.” (John 21: 9-12)
I have so many questions pertaining to this scene – how did Jesus obtain the fish that were already cooking when the disciples had yet to bring in the fish from their nets? Did the fish taste amazing? Where did Jesus learn to cook?
Fr. Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi (2014), an Italian Theologian explains that it is highly possible that Jesus was in fact quite familiar with the culinary arts, and knew the intricacies of food traditions, recipes, balance, and flavour. This is evidenced from how his parables were centred around food, feasts, banquets, and how he could quote perfectly, the amount of yeast needed to leaven bread –“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” (Matthew 13:33) It is likely that Jesus took delight in watching Mary and Joseph prepare meals and host the poor, and that He Himself carried on these traditions of kindness and hospitality by cooking for His friends and disciples.
Fr. Pagazzi, who holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, goes on to elaborate that the Italian term for “Good Shepherd” translates to buon pastore. In Italian, the word, pastore has a double meaning, coming from the root word, pasto – “a meal” and pastore – “a shepherd who provides”. Placed together, Jesus is the shepherd who nourishes His flock with the Daily Bread of Himself, and as the visible face of God the Father who provides us with our daily bread (2014). Cooking is an act of love and welcome for the guests around the dining table. Feasts were lavish and took time, often days to prepare. Fr. Pagazzi proposes that it was because Jesus knew at heart that in His guests partaking of His hospitality at the table, they would also be present to very real experiences of the foretaste of the tangible future of the Heavenly Banquet (Harris 2014).
Reading Fr Pagazzi, I am reminded of the reflections of John Christman (2022) who observes the phenomenon of people on the subway in the U.S.A. eating their meals. As it is permissible to eat on U.S. trains, people tended to have their full meals sitting in the trains. Christman documented that these passengers ate quietly by themselves, sat in silence, and made no eye contact with their fellow passengers. When Christman shared this experience with a Benedictine Abbot, the abbot reflected that it is difficult for people to understand that the Eucharist as a celebration, has everything to do with the dimension of sharing a meal in a communal setting, because their own experiences and encounters with food and eating are solitary and non-relational (Christman 2022).
The Eucharistic meal is therefore a family meal where the family of God gathers as His sons and daughters, reflecting our relationship to and with God, and with each other. The Triune God is a community, and as we are made in His image, we too in our social natures, when we come together in the Eucharistic meal enter into fellowship with God and come to understand Him better.
There is something to be said about Table-fellowship (Ounsworth 2024). Jesus is asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30), and from this we understand that something profound and mysterious happens during Table-fellowship. As our bodies are nourished and our hunger fades, the veil of confusion lifts, and we, like the disciples at Emmaus, at the breaking of bread, at the sharing of breakfast after the Resurrection, at the sharing of a drink of water at the well with the Samaritan woman, begin to recognise God in our midst. Conversion happens when we come at the Lord’s invitation to “take and eat”, and to “take and drink” (Christman 2022). Jesus is no longer unreal, but real, and it makes sense that it is necessary for us to share a meal in fellowship with Jesus. God understands that we need to eat, and He Himself will feed us and sustain us.
By the Grace of God,
Brian Bartholomew Tan
References
Christman, John. 2022. “Eating Together can help Parishes renew eucharistic life.” U.S. Catholic. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://uscatholic.org/articles/202206/eating-together-can-help-parishes-renew-eucharistic-life/
Harris, Judith. 2014. ‘Truly top chef: Gospel shows Jesus knew how to cook, says theologian.” National Catholic Reporter. Accessed July 20, 2024 https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/truly-top-chef-gospel-shows-jesus-knew-how-cook-theologian-says – :~:text=%22Come%2C%20have%20breakfast%2C%22,and%20food%2C%22%20Pagazzi%20says.
Kosloski, Philip. 2019. “How God is present in the pots and pans.” Aleteia. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://aleteia.org/2019/10/09/how-god-is-present-among-the-pots-and-pans
Pagazzi, Giovanni Cesare. 2014. La cucina del Risorto. Gesù «cuoco» per l’umanità affamata. EMI
Ounsworth, Richard. 2024. “’Come and have breakfast.’: Unravelling the mystery of food in Jesus’ Life.” Catholic Herald. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://catholicherald.co.uk/come-and-have-breakfast-unravelling-the-mystery-of-food-in-jesus-life/