Readings: Proverbs 9, 1-6; Psalm 34, Taste & See the Goodness of the Lord; Ephesians 5, 15-20; John 6, 51-58
Proverbs:
What are they: a collection of moral & religious teachings in the form of pithy sayings. For example: "Better to eat a dry crust of bread with peace of mind than to have a banquet in a house full of trouble" (17, 1); "Being cheerful always keeps you healthy" (17, 22).
Some a bit tough: "Don't hesitate to discipline a child. A good beating won't kill him" (23, 12).
Some amusing: "A nagging wife is like water going drip-drip-drip" (27, 15); "Better to live on the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife" (25, 24).
Author: Maybe Solomon is behind chapters 1-29. Most likely a compilation. Judging by the examples can it be more obvious whether a male or female was the author and at whom the writers were talking.
Date: Ca. 300 BCE is considered a possibility with material coming from as far back as 900, during the time of Solomon.
Our Selection: Wisdom is personified and she is preparing a feast or banquet to which the simple people are invited.
Sources: Religious Information Service & Wikipedia
The Joy of a First Class Feast
Rather than take responsibility for my ideas today, I am going to blame my Jesuit training and my Jesuit buddies over the years.
When I came back from my years in East Africa, I took up back packing and camping with a group of Jesuits who had been doing this for some years. Every year six or eight guys from actually all over the country would choose a destination, gather, and set out for usually two one week back pack trips. These guys were pretty good and I learned a lot just by tagging along.
However, in the beginning I had one reservation. The custom was that every year we brought along enough of a certain brew, Jack Daniels, in fact, so that each person might enjoy a shot every evening before dinner. I remember thinking to myself, 'In my limited experience in camping we never brought this extra weight.' So why now?
Well, I learned, I who can be somewhat obsessive about being hard on myself. In the Jesuit life I had come to understand that while we all are expected to live simply and work hard, occasionally on, say, religious feasts, like the Assumption (which was just celebrated yesterday and which marks the anniversary of my entry into the Jesuits in 1958), I came to appreciate a custom called a first class feast.
Normally we ate well. In fact, I can claim that one factor in keeping me a Jesuit for the first years was the cuisine. We lived in a house with over a hundred Jesuits. We lived in southwest Louisiana, Grand Coteau, LA, in fact, and we had local guys who cooked cajun. First time in my life I had 3 prepared hot meals per day. Because of the rigorous life style I could eat with reckless abandon. I remember no overweight classmates.
So this was the norm. But on special holidays we had first class feasts. This meant at least that we could talk at meals and probably had ice cream, home made from milk from the large dairy herd on the campus. We did not have alcohol, but we had tremendous meals.
My camping trips with these guys carried on the first class feast tradition, even at the cost of lugging in a few extra ingredients. The custom was that we had a Mass all together about 5:00, then a drink with a hunk of cheese, then soup, a main course, and a desert, like chocolate pudding. It was terrific. We had delightful evenings.
Guess what. The trip we ten just took to Yosemite, my annual pilgrimage, followed the same recipe. Instead of having Mass before the evening's first class feast, we had a Mass afterward around the campfire on the two occasions we laid over in one beautiful campsite for two nights.
But at 5:00 the cantina opened and Rob graciously played the role of bartender. Beth handled the cheese. Then we had casseroles like chicken or salmon tetrazinni, plus deserts like blueberry cheese cake or apple cobbler. All the meals had been prepared, dehydrated, and vacuum packed by Rose. Ray was our main cook. Mike handled the campfires.
I talk about these feasts because the gospel and the reading from Proverbs both talk about a feast. Even Ephesians talks about drinking, but negatively, cautioning against drunkenness. Three observations.
First, these feasts are joys to our lives. Our ancestors since they came down out of the trees have sat around campfires like we did and they enjoyed their meals. Harvest celebrations became custom. These celebrations bring us joy & deeper relationships, happiness and greater inner peace.
Secondly, the best feasts often involve a lot of people. Look at the covered dish brunches we have here. Everyone contributes and we have a blast. I will never forget the covered dish reception Rosemary & I had at our wedding. In Yosemite everyone seemed to have something to do from Rose who put the food together, to Ray cooking, Mike making the campfire, and Rob & Beth handling the hors d'oeuvres. Daniel cleaned the pots.
Thirdly, the first class feast is the paradigm of our celebrations and Masses here on Sunday. What is unique about it is we intentionally emphasize a spiritual component of the meal, inviting God to be part of our celebration. Certainly all sorts of people pitch in the make the event special. Hopefully we too walk out of here with joy & richer relationships, happinesss and greater inner peace.
This reminds me that we ought to have a back to school, beginning of fall Sunday brunch in September.
When was the last time you had this type of feast? When the next?
Picture 1: Mass with Stephen (birthday, 19), Kevin, & Sabrina
Picture 2: Chloe & her granny, Denni
Picture 3: Anniversary–Bernadette & Gil; Birthday–Marlene
