God Shows Up in a Pie — Awkward Asian Theologian

I distincly remember one Sunday Mass from years ago, where a homily drew attention to the link between sacramentality and food. What stood out was that the homily made particular reference to the luscious 1987 Danish film Babette’s Feast.

Before reading on, just be warned that there are some minor spoilers. If you have not watched the film, I strongly encourage you to do so.

In the Babette’s Feast, the erotic dimension of Babette’s French Catholicism unexpectedly visits a pious Protestant town, incarnating themselves in the form of opera and food. The townsfolk, while sympathetic to Babette, are nonetheless suspicious of her very fleshy unfurling of her lifeworld in theirs, which culminates in the titular feast for the townsfolk. They are worried that this seeming indulgence would lead to the downfall of the town.

Instead, Babette’s presence, both physical and sacramental, end up stirring and reviving emotions and bonds that were once deemed non-existent or irredeemably broken. One instance of this occurs at the presentation of a very unctuous pie. Having eaten of this very abundant pastry one of the characters, a playboy turned cynical military man, is moved to declare his realisation of the infinitude of mercy and a life surging with grace.

The reason for the transition from the eating of the pie to this exclamation of God’s excessive bounty was explained by this homily, which drew attention to the name of the pie, Cailles en Sarcophage (Quail in a Sarcophagus). The sarcophagus is a tomb, a flesh eater which is, unfortunately for the quail, vividly evident in the pie. The death of the quail, and the flesh-eating properties of the pie, are in turn swallowed up by the diners.

Read in a sacramental lens, this simple act of eating a pie can be seen as an analogue for the ultimate sacramental action, namely the Eucharist. The Eucharist – which literally means thanksgiving – constantly reminds us that the Eucharistic food is given to us through the goodness of God, mediated through the earth and the vine. The sacrifice of the Mass, remembering the Passion of Jesus Christ, is then eaten by the congregation, and death is quite literally swallowed up.

In a strange twist, however, Augustine reminds us that in the Eucharist, we are consumed by what we consume. And what ultimately gets swallowed up is our death , as we become swallowed up into the body of Christ that we have previously eaten. The revivifying of emotions and bonds in Babette’s Feast is a faint echo of that Eucharistic action where, in our being swallowed up by the Christ that we have swallwed up, the words of 1 Corinthians 15:54 are enacted

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.

Needless to say, the movie is enjoyable on so many levels. Thanks to this homily by the priest whose name has disappeared into the fog of my memory, I can now never look at a pie the same way again.

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