Many who will travel to either Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge or the Caesar’s Superdome this football season will tailgate before the game. The most important item for tailgating is food. As I return this month to my series on biblical foundations of the Eucharist I will reflect upon a story in 1 Kings 19:1-8 at whose heart is food.
The diner in the story is the prophet Elijah who is fleeing the wrath of the queen of Israel (the Northern Kingdom), Jezebel, a princess of the pagan city-state Tyre. She was wed to the Israelite king, Ahab, in a marriage arranged by Ahab’s father Omri. The union proved detrimental to Israel, because Jezebel sought to replace the ancestral faith of Israel with the religion of her people. Elijah is a prophet of the God of Israel, a prophet who strives to call the residents of Israel back to their ancestral faith. Earlier at Mount Carmel, Elijah arranged a spiritual contest in the presence of the Israelites and the prophets of the rival god, Baal, a contest in which Elijah and Israel’s God emerged victorious. Afterward Elijah slew the 450 Baal prophets, an act which incited Jezebel to seek his life (1 Kings 18:19-40; 19:1-2).
In fear, Elijah departs for the desert fleeing the queen’s treachery against him. The first of two messengers who appear in the story, Jezebel’s emissary, delivers a message of doom to Elijah. Elijah’s life is riddled with turmoil and the prophet is consumed with running to preserve his life. He goes to Beer-Sheba, an ancient shrine which is situated in the Southern Kingdom (Judah), a hint of hope. It is here that the Lord’s promise to make Abraham a great nation is renewed with Abraham’s grandson, Jacob (Genesis 26:23-24). Having left his servant at the shrine, Elijah travels into the desert, and his mood turns from fear to despondency, even despite his victory over the Baal prophets. He comes to rest under a broom-tree, but prays for death there. His fear has evolved into a death-wish; Elijah has hit bottom!
The entrance of the second messenger in the story signals its turning point. This messenger from the Lord (the ancestral God of Israel) rouses the sleeping Elijah and deliver’s God’s directive that the prophet arise and eat. The abruptness of the messenger’s imperatives indicates that in spite of Elijah’s fear and desolation God has plans for the prophet. The messenger’s command to eat the cake and drink the water at his head is a directive to Elijah to find strength in two ways: Physically and spiritually. Elijah eats and drinks, but lies down again. A second time the messenger urges him to eat and drink, and this time provides a motive for his directives: So he may have strength for the journey. There is no dialog between the messenger and Elijah about the destination of the journey or its purpose. God does not haggle with humans over such questions; God simply directs what God wants done. Elijah is going on this journey, so he is to eat to gain physical strength to make the trek. Strengthened by his second repast of bread and water, Elijah travels on foot 40 days and 40 nights to God’s mountain, Horeb, the Northern Kingdom’s name for Mt. Sinai. Elijah’s 40-day-and-night journey recalls the 40 days and nights Moses spent on the mountain recording the laws in Exodus 34:12-26. The author there tells us that Moses worked during this time period taking neither bread nor water (34:28). In contrast, Elijah needed the bread and water to get him to the place where Moses had been. Elijah’s journey to the mountain where the covenant law was given represents a new beginning for Elijah in his prophetic ministry. Elijah takes food for physical sustenance, and that meal enables him to make the journey to the mountain where the Sinai Covenant was ratified. Journeying to this sacred and foundational place for Israelite faith, Elijah is spiritually strengthened. He gets back in touch with the ultimate purpose of his prophetic mission: To stabilize the people in their covenant relationship with God or call them back to it.
Just as the bread and water God provides for Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-8 is a source of strength for his journey to Mt. Horeb, so is the Eucharist food for the journey of our lives. In the U. S. Bishops’ document The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church, nos. 51-55, the bishops remind us that the Eucharist is indeed nourishment for our life’s journey. Our life is a journey in the sense that every decision we make and action we undertake represents a movement in our hearts and spirits either toward or away from God. Regular participation in the Eucharist can facilitate our spiritual movement toward an ultimate union with God. The Eucharist nourishes and strengthens the relationship we already have with God. We know that our physical living will cease if we do not nourish our bodies with food. The same is true of the gift of eternal life which we receive from God through faith in his Son (John 3:36); it must be nourished with spiritual food if it is to endure.
Our life in God is nourished in many ways, for example, through prayer, reflection on Scripture, and in the act of doing charitable works. But the gift of life from God is nourished in a special way by means of the Eucharist. The eucharistic elements we receive are Christ himself. We begin our journey of faith in baptism, and that journey is nourished by repetitive participation in the Eucharist. We are nourished in the sense that the Eucharist, if we receive it sincerely, produces in us a deepening of our intimacy with Christ. Without the Eucharist in our lives our intimacy with God the Father through his Son can wither and die like a branch severed from its nourishment-producing vine (John 15:1-7). And as in the case of Elijah, the Eucharist can be a source of strength for us when we are disheartened.
The eucharistic food prompts us and enables us by divine grace to dedicate our lives to living the way Christ taught us to live. At the end of Mass, the dismissal spoken by the deacon (or priest) is not simply a declaration that Mass is ended and so we are free to leave. We are told to go in order to do something: To glorify the Lord by our lives or to announce the Gospel. We can engage in these activities because at Mass we have received the food that enables us to do so. As food for our spiritual life-journey the Eucharist is indispensable. Reflection Questions ●How do you experience the Eucharist as spiritual nourishment? ● In what way is the Eucharist a source of strength in life’s more difficult times? ● How does participation in the sacrament of the holy Eucharist encourage people to live lives of faith?