In several biblical episodes, Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a great banquet or wedding feast. Indeed, he couldn’t find a more universally evocative image to describe the abundance of divine love to a human mind. In the same way, the biblical accounts of the Wedding in Cana and of the multiplication of fishes and breads are central to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.

It is also by sharing meals with notorious sinners, and by attaching little importance to the strict dietary laws (which distinguished clean animals from unclean ones) in force at that time that Jesus suggested the universality of salvation (Mark 7:14-24; Acts 10:11-12).

These culinary metaphors, used as a privileged channel to make people understand the transformation of the world brought about by his coming on earth, show how much Christ was aware of the insatiability of the human soul. And it is precisely to answer this intrinsic hunger— physiological as well as spiritual — that the Son of God gave humanity his own body and blood through the bread and wine he shared with the Apostles at the Last Supper. With this gesture, Christ suggests that the most vibrant communion between earth and Heaven comes from a meal shared in his name.  

To this extent, the Holy Week and Easter celebrations, which commemorate the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord, illustrate better than any other feast how much the way we eat determines our relationship with the divine. 

 

Why Fasting Matters

First of all, there is no full communion with the Eternal Father without the practice of fasting, as it is necessary to have known hunger of the body and spirit to be hungry for redemption and membership in the Kingdom, as the Beatitudes recall (Matthew 5:6). By exalting the deep precariousness of our mortal condition, awaking our instinctive fear of running out of food, fasting challenges our faith in the divine Providence.

“The fast on Good Friday and even Holy Saturday is actually a huge and perhaps the strongest gastronomic event of Easter, the first element of its culinary tradition which is being practiced in every Christian culture,” Father Andrea Ciucci, author of a number of publications and books about the relation between the Christian faith and gastronomy, told the Register.

He mentioned in particular an anecdote of the life of St. Francis Xavier, reported in Monumenta Xaveriana by Diogo Madeira, the captain of the ship that brought the Jesuit missionary to Portuguese India during Holy Week in April 1541. According to the latter, St. Francis Xavier refused to eat anything during the preceding six days of travel, before eventually accepting a bit of onion soup on the evening of Holy Saturday.

As Father Ciucci recalls, the first of the three main reasons why fasting is a necessary practice in Christian life, especially while commemorating the death of Jesus Christ for our sins, is the notion of fasting as a penitential act. After acknowledging our sins, we thus renounce eating something in order to redeem ourselves and seek God’s forgiveness in this liturgical time that is particularly favorable to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The second purpose of fasting is to make us remember, as Jesus said, that “One does not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4) and consequently to dedicate oneself to worshiping God.

“Then it is also a way to make us understand that essential questions and events such as that of the Passion of Christ mustn’t be lived through the intellect only, but also physiologically,” Father Ciucci said, adding that the absence of food sends our body the message that something important is happening. “It is not our intellectual reflection that helps us remember the death of Christ, but our rumbling stomach, our headache caused by hunger, as our body is wondering why it is not receiving anything to eat.”

This is why he himself encourages his parishioners to fast at least for a few hours on Good Friday — according to each person’s possibilities and health conditions — in order to immerse themselves more intensively in the commemoration.  

 

Explosion of Life and Divine Love

Obviously, these physical and moral efforts are not in vain, and they are also meant to put the faithful in condition to better welcome the miracle of the Resurrection of Christ in their own lives. As the Resurrection of Christ and his promise to transform our “lowly bodies” into the image of his “Glorified Body” (Philippians 3:21) immerses us in the light of Easter, the previous days of trial and mourning give way to a moment of pure rejoicing.

It is precisely this joy of the Good News that the culinary traditions have been honoring for centuries at Easter, whatever the culture. “The idea of overabundance is another great characteristic of all Christian gastronomic traditions with regard to Easter meals, following the sacrifices made on Good Friday; there always is plenty of food,” Father Ciucci noted. “This custom is a metaphor meant to express the profusion of life, of the divine love that overflows, explodes, and thus explodes at the festive meal, too.”

To this extent, it is no accident that the most symbolic element of Easter tradition is egg, in all its forms — including, of course, chocolate eggs. “It is a classic that has gone through tradition in countless recipes because it is exactly the symbol of this life that hatches.

“Thereby, food becomes what we are celebrating, and it is an approach the Christian world borrowed from the Jewish paschal tradition.”

 

Jewish Sources

Indeed, most of the ingredients composing Easter dishes, including egg itself, are also typical of the Jewish festivity of Pesach (or Passover, which commemorates the ancient Israelites liberation from Egypt and their subsequent exodus toward the Promised Land), whose date frequently overlaps with Christian Easter. Although the religious meaning of the two feasts are very different, their dishes draw on the same biblical tradition and thus share many symbols that are part of a common narrative memory.

“The Jewish celebration of Passover informs us on the roots of our own symbols,” Father Ciucci said, mentioning in particular the tradition of eating lamb on Easter. “St. John himself places the death of Christ exactly at the time when the lambs were sacrificed at the Temple during the Jewish celebration.” Such a temporal coincidence is, according to the priest, a clear Christological reference to the mystery of Easter, to the lamb slain to wash our sins.

This is why this element borrowed from the Jewish tradition is so central to the Christian celebration in its different cultural variations. While confessing his predilection for honey-roasted leg of lamb for his Easter dinner, Father Ciucci highlights the interweaving of delight and tragedy surrounding this festive dish. “Every time we eat lamb, there is also a memory of the tragedy of the Lord’s Passover,” he said.

Another core element of a traditional Easter dish is bread, which is also very present in countries where the Jewish influence is strong, like in Poland. “In the Scripture, bread is a sign of blessing and at the same time, there is the important event of the feast of unleavened bread in the Jewish celebration of Pesach,” Ciucci said, adding that unleavened bread, which the Christians took up for the celebration of the Eucharist, conceals a new and uncorrupted life, as St. Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). 

 

Rediscovering the Family Dimension of Easter

In these troubled times, when for the first time in history, millions of faithful are deprived of the Eucharist and the celebrations of the Holy Week, focusing on the Holy Scriptures can once again be a great help.

And in the light of this strong biblical tradition surrounding bread, Fr. Ciucci advises Catholic families to break bread and share the chalice of wine all together to remember Jesus Christ. “It is definitely not the same thing as when a priest does it during Mass, but this gesture is all we have now and we should make the most of it,” he said, considering that this very sad period of time for the faithful is also an occasion to rediscover the domestic and family dimension of such a celebration, following the Jewish tradition.

Indeed, Passover is above all a family celebration during which they gather at home, around bountiful tables. According to tradition, the youngest child of the house must ask the head of the family the reason why they have all gathered for this special dinner and the symbolic meaning of the food they are eating. Thus, the head of the family must tell the story of Passover and the liberation from Egypt.

“Today, during this festive meal around which families are reunited, we are invited to tell the young generations, to tell children why we are celebrating Easter, and tell them about the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.”