Skip to main content

'The arts of feasting': spiritual food as we fast from the Eucharist

In his book Finding the Church, the late priest and theologian Daniel Hardy described the eucharist as a gathered interval in the scattered life of the Church. What if we are called to inhabit an interval that is longer than a day or a week - an interval of extended scattering as we anticipate the feast?

 The Church Times article by priest-theologian Julie Gittoes, 'Why I am fasting from the feast', offers a welcome and necessary theological reflection on our fasting from the Eucharist during this time of Covid-19.  Above all, it points to the theological rationale for such a fast: that this is not merely a pragmatic course of action but, rather, one grounded in the Church's life of prayer and sacrament.

What particularly caught my attention in the article was this section:

This Eastertide, we are walking a road to Emmaus. The world around is unsettled and fearful; we have questions that we can’t answer; we are haunted by death. Yet we also hear stories of life-affirming and demanding care. Just as Jesus opened up the scriptures for the bewildered disciples on the Emmaus road, might we also attend more deeply to God’s word?

As we take the scriptures to heart - reading in the Spirit - we rediscover who we are called to be, and learn afresh something of God’s ways with the world. As our homes become more keenly places of prayer, study, and devotion, might our hearts burn within us as we keep going, knowing that one day we will gather to break bread and know the nearness of our risen Lord with us?

These words are a wonderful description of the rediscovery of Mattins and Evensong which can take place at this time (and anecdotal evidence does seem to suggest that this may be occurring).  What is more, this also points us to the core of the daily office, as described by Cranmer: "by often reading, and meditation in God's word".  It also brings to mind Michael Ramsey's warning regarding the value of Mattins as a main Sunday service, "where congregations were nurtured in the Scriptures".

The reading of Scripture within the context of canticles and Creed embodies the Emmaus experience:

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

The canticles order our reading of Scripture towards the Christological centre: Te Deum celebrating the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Benedictus proclaiming the Incarnation, the Jubilate - in the words of Secker (quoted by Mant) - "peculiarly proper after a lesson from the Gospel, since it peculiarly relates to the Gospel times", rejoicing in the One in whom the Gentiles hope.  Similarly, the Creed - Apostles' or Athanasian - grounds our reading of Scripture in the Church's confession of the Christological centre, drawing us to perceive the Crucified and Risen Lord manifested in the scriptural story of Israel and of the Church.

After the pattern of the Emmaus experience, this rediscovery of Mattins and Evensong then becomes a preparation for receiving the Sacrament:

Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? ... And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

 The sustained reflection upon Scripture through Mattins and Evensong, with a renewed experience of these offices being normative Anglican worship, does not displace the Sacrament of the Eucharist but prepares us for, and orients us towards, "such a heavenly Feast".  It becomes a means of restoring the discipline of preparation which, over centuries, shaped the approach of Christians to the Sacrament.  In doing so, it does not leave us without sustenance.  For here and now we are fed.

In his critique of the ecclesial laws concerning the Lenten fast in the medieval Church, Jeremy Taylor pointed to the culinary delights of fish, adding with considerable irony this critique of those who described the Lenten fast as difficult:

He therefore that objects against the severity and affliction of the Lenten diet, knows not the arts of feasting; and complains of the church for a step-mother, when she is not only kind, but fond also of making such provisions. 

Yes, we are living in a time when fasting from the Holy Communion is a necessity.  But let us not be those who 'know not the arts of feasting'.  Taylor reminded his readers that even amidst the requirements of the Lenten fast, "herbs, and fruits, and broths" were permitted, as "God hath provided great variety of other things besides flesh".  In our present fasting from the Sacrament we are not left without sustenance, without a form of feasting.  So let us partake of the fare of Scripture, delightfully presented to us in Mattins and Evensong, even as we prepare for and await the great feast.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders.  With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter.  The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition).  Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical).  Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...
25 comments
Read more

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition.  A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics".  Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics.  What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition.  Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...
19 comments
Read more

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC.  On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism.  At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...
4 comments
Read more