The Beauty of Food and Drink

One

The Spiritual Importance of Food

God, in His wisdom and generosity, has made us creatures of body and soul. And perhaps the most repeated reminder that we are both body and soul is the fact that we have to eat, like the beasts, three times a day. But even if we have to eat, like the beasts have to eat, we’re not supposed to eat like beasts.

We’re supposed to eat like images of God. Table manners, utensils, grace before meals, and an appreciation for cooking and eating together at fixed times as a sign of love, with hospitality, family, friends, and good conversation. The lower animals don’t do that. 

The way we eat is supposed to be a sign of what we are. Eating is meant to nourish the soul as well as the body. In fact, eating is so important, that God has chosen to come to us in the most holy, most intimate manner of all, through the Holy Eucharist.

The Church teaches that the source and summit of the Christian life involves eating and sipping from a cup.

So, are we eating in a way that corresponds to our dignity as human beings and as Christians?

Two

Simple delight in beauty three times a day

God could have made human beings so that they never needed to eat. He could have made us simple work-machines that never had to stop for nourishment. But He is so gracious that He has written it into our design that about three times a day, we must stop to take delight. Because there’s a sense in which food is the most basic kind of delight. 

One of the first delights a child has is uniting with his mother by receiving food from her body. And as we get older we’re capable of finding beauty in what we eat.

Beauty is a combination of order and surprise, and you could say that food is orderly when it’s well-prepared and that it’s surprising in its endless variety of tastes and smells.

So ask yourself, regardless of what stresses there are in your life, do you take a moment before each meal and say, sincerely, “Thank you, God, for another burst of beauty. For another pause for pleasure. Thank you for making me with an appetite for this goodness and thank you for providing this goodness to me now.”

We get into the habit of saying grace, but make sure, especially when you eat alone, that you’re praying grace. 

The Lord is so generous, and one of His most recurrent gifts, the gift of food, is one of the ones we recurrently forget to thank Him for. And, by the way, without gratitude, you can never really enjoy a gift.

So stop before you eat, say thank you, and then enjoy your meal.

Three

Taking the time

Of course, a lot of people don’t enjoy what they eat because they don’t take the time to enjoy it.

Each meal is supposed to be like a little Sunday, a time of prayer and rest and delight and often a time of community throughout the day. But people don’t observe Sundays because they’d rather get stuff done than be happy, and people don’t savor their meals for the same reason. 

To enjoy food, we have to be willing to slow down and take the time to enjoy it. Also, we have to be willing to slow down and take the time to make it. Fast food is generally made fast and eaten fast. The same can be said for microwave dinners. But why would we want to blitz through our happiness? Why would we want to hurry through pleasure as fast as possible?

What can that be but pride? The impulse to make an impact instead of to appreciate the goodness of life?

So here’s a first tip: if you’re eating alone, put away the phone or the computer. Don’t get a book. Don’t listen to something. Just eat in silence. Appreciate the food consciously. And be grateful consciously.

Four

Developing the discipline

Every art takes time to master and execute. Every kind of artwork takes time to develop an appreciation for. Culinary art is no different. 

If we’re going to enjoy what God has made available to us, we’re going to have to slow down, which is probably the best thing for our souls and bodies anyway.

We said every art takes time and discipline to perfect. Learning to cook, to prepare food well and with some variety, is an art that we are losing and it’s taking a human toll. Our bodies and our souls are suffering from the unhealthiness and the boredom of eating nothing more than mass-produced food. Processed food that comes in boxes and cans is literally killing us. 

The first step to overcoming this is to recognize the art of cooking as a true art, producing works of beauty.

So, slow down, buy real food and prepare it. Then share it with others. I make a really amazing lentil dahl. Plus it’s a lot less expensive to cook your own food than go out to eat. And if someone in the house is in charge of preparing the food, make sure he or she is properly celebrated and thanked for the spiritual service being rendered to the community.

But also, as with the appreciation of every art, people need to be educated to appreciate it. And education works best if it begins early. So helping children to appreciate and eat all kinds of food, this is as important, or maybe more important, than helping them to appreciate good literature and good art.

Children, if left to themselves, will consume a lot of junk music, books, movies, and food. It’s up to parents to help them see the goodness of what is truly good. That takes a lot of work, but then again, all education takes a lot of work and that’s a parent’s primary job. 

So don’t give up! Invest in your kids’ future happiness by helping them to eat well.

Five

The virtue and charity of learning to eat well

The virtue of eating well isn’t just something for “people who are into that sort of thing”. It’s actually a demand of Christian morality. Our Lord gives very clear instructions to His disciples in the Gospel when He says, “Eat what is set before you.”

In our case, that means don’t let your immature palate, your childish preferences, stop you from delighting in the goodness that arrives on your plate from other peoples’ hands.

Learning to rejoice in what is good, to appreciate what is objectively beautiful, to be grateful for order and surprise, that’s an obligation for every one of us.

So let’s live that out in the simplest way possible, by making our meals holy, charitable, and delightful.