The Virtuous Act of Feasting as a Cure for Gluttony

The insufficiency of fasting alone

Throughout its history, the church has viewed fasting as necessary for worship, spiritual formation, and the pursuit of virtue. In the early church, catechumens, as well as those who would be baptizing them, were instructed to fast prior to the baptism. Churches that observe the liturgical calendar set aside certain seasons (Advent, Lent), and specific days (Ash Wednesday, Good Friday) for fasting. Abba Moses believed that fasting makes the soul humble. ⁴ Abba John the Dwarf taught, The church fathers, mothers, and desert monks practiced fasting and encouraged others to follow their example.

If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy’s city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh: if [one] goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of [one’s] soul grow weak. ⁵

Their encouragement, however, was not without warning. One desert father taught that fasting without discretion does nothing:

I am telling you: many have afflicted their flesh without discretion and have come empty away, nothing accomplished. Our mouth stinks from fasting; we have learnt the Scriptures by heart; we have perfected [our knowledge of the Psalms of] David and yet we do not possess that which God seeks: love and humility. ⁶

Another elder taught two brothers about the need to break a fast to promote other virtues: “Fasting has its reward, but he who eats again out of charity obeys two commandments: for he has set aside his own will and fulfilled the law [of hospitality].” ⁷ Abba Isidore even suggested that one would be better off eating meat if regular fasting resulted in pride. ⁸

A strong contingent of the early church believed that fasting, while profitable, had its limitations. Fasting done with ulterior motives, in pride, or done without prayer and other spiritual disciplines is described as ineffective or even seen as an obstacle toward the flourishing of mercy and hospitality. Nevertheless, fasting remained a popular approach to tackling the vices, and many, in the pursuit of holiness, took fasting to the extreme, a practice that exposed fasting’s limitations. For example, many of the ascetic tradition subsisted on the Eucharist alone. Some cloistered medieval women who pursued piety through extreme fasting experienced severe side effects: abnormal bleeding, suppressed menstruation, insomnia, and other disturbing ailments. ⁹ Likewise, Francis of Assisi is famous for his ascetic practices with respect to food. In addition to extreme fasts, Francis

rarely [ate] cooked food, often adding cold water or ashes to destroy its taste; when invited to fancy dinners he would take a bite of what was before him . . . and then discreetly drop the rest in his lap. ¹⁰

Aquinas rejected excessive fasting and cited Jerome to support his point:

Jerome says that “it makes no difference whether you are sapping yourself for a long or for a short time; by excessive lack of nourishment and by eating and sleeping too little you are offering a sacrifice of stolen goods.” Right reason does not refuse food to the extent of rendering us incapable of discharging our duties. ¹¹

Humans are spiritual beings but are also physical beings that rely on basic nutrition to survive. Fasting to the point of starvation goes against the teaching of honoring one’s body as a temple of the Spirit (1 Cor 6:19–20). Due to God-ordained physical limitations, God’s people need to nourish their bodies to pursue God’s call. Fasting to the point of starvation renders one incapable of fulfilling that call and is a poor witness to the world.

Extreme fasting led some adherents to embrace the physical inability to eat, ¹² reminiscent of desert land that repels the rain it so desperately needs. Aquinas refers to such disordered reason as “unfeelingness,” a vice filed under intemperance:

To fly in the face of nature is wicked, and in the natural order of things pleasure goes with the operations necessary for human life. And so, a person is expected to enjoy them in so far as they are bound up with human well-being and with the maintenance of the individual. . . . To the extent that a person was to fail to meet these claims by refusing pleasure [that person] would run counter to the order of nature and sin. This, in effect, is what the vice of unfeelingness does. ¹³

Ironically, the very practice intended to grow the virtue of temperance instead leads to a vice that is fueled by intemperance.

The results of extreme fasting, and Aquinas’s critique of it, reveal why fasting alone is problematic and insufficient. People fast, in part, to keep the desires for pleasure in check, but extreme fasting seeks to eliminate pleasure from eating altogether. Thus, Francis will add ash to his food to eliminate the pleasurable aspect of eating. Doing so, according to Aquinas, is unnatural and leads to an inability to take part in something humanity was created to receive. A person is expected to enjoy food if it remains within the boundaries of a healthy diet. Not only is food a gift from God, but the pleasure in eating food is a gift from God as well. When one chooses to fast in a way that is unfitting, that person is unable to see food, and the pleasure in consuming it, as a way God shows God’s love toward humanity.

To assume Jesus would reject such practices as well is not beyond reason, even though some undertook excessive fasting to emulate his example. ¹⁴ Indeed, Jesus fasted in an extreme way once, when he went into the wilderness after his baptism and “fasted forty days and forty nights” (Matt 4:2; Luke 4:3). These examples of extreme fasting are an exception, however. While the Mosaic Law details how, when, and why one should fast, and fasting is an assumed practice when Jesus speaks of it in the Sermon on the Mount, scripture does not describe in detail, let alone prescribe, extreme fasting as a spiritual discipline. ¹⁵

Granted, this ascetic lifestyle is not as prevalent in the church now as it was centuries ago. Furthermore, reasonably practiced fasting generally does not lead to health risks or unfeelingness. In fact, fasting has shown to be part of a healthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, the effects of extreme fasting reveal that the practice of fasting, even if done right, cannot teach a person how to enjoy food the right way. Fasting may help an individual appreciate food once they have abstained from it for a time, but what does the person do once they return from fasting? Does that person know how to eat food and enjoy it as God intended? One must, therefore, combine fasting with another spiritual practice, namely feasting, to grow in temperance.

What feasting is, what feasting is not

Fasting fights gluttony as one abstains from food and drink. It is a negative activity that can yield positive results. Feasting, meanwhile, also aids in curing gluttony in a way fasting cannot. Instead of ordering the desire for food by abstaining from it, feasting orders the desire for food by one’s learning to use it well. It is a positive activity that can yield positive results. To show how this proper ordering of the desire for food can take place includes distinguishing true feasting from false feasting.

Jesus’s life perhaps best exemplifies the confusion about feasting. Jesus practiced and taught how to fast, and he complemented his fasting with feasting. He feasted often enough to be accused as “a glutton and a drunkard” (Matt 11:19). He chose to perform his first miracle at a wedding feast (John 2:11). He taught his disciples not to fast while he remained on earth (Mark 2:18–22). He went so far as to correct the disciples of John when they questioned why his disciples did not fast: “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast” (Matt 9:15, NIV). The practice of proper feasting is foreign to people, and they often mistake it for something else.

As Josef Pieper notes,

Of course there is a natural peril and a germ of degeneration inherent in this [feasting]. The way is open to . . . an extravagance that violates all rationality. . . . We may say properly that every festival conceals within itself “at least a germ of excess.” ¹⁶

In the same way that fasting can turn to excessive fasting, feasting has potential to turn into excess. The confusion between feasting and gluttony, a confusion that seems to date to the life of Jesus, makes equating one with the other easy.

A clear and poignant example of such confusion is in Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthian church. In 1 Cor 11:17–34, Paul admonishes the church in Corinth concerning their observance of the Lord’s Supper, which in those days was celebrated with a love feast. Ideally, the feast was to be a time of communion with one another, in which those who had plenty shared with those who had little. The community was to remember Christ when they ate and drank, recalling his death, showing kindness toward one another, and exhibiting temperance. The Corinthian feast possessed none of these qualities. Divisions existed among the people (vv. 18–19). Some believers went without food and drink while others got drunk (v. 21). Doing so humiliated the poor in their midst (v. 22). The Corinthians were not partaking in godly feasting, but rather were seeing the feast as permission to be gluttonous.

The Corinthians’ abuse of the love feast resembles the current US situation. In his popular television series, No Reservations, the late Anthony Bourdain traveled the world to provide his audience an entertaining glimpse into cultures few would ever experience. The premise of the show was simple, yet profound: “What people eat is an expression of their culture, their history, how they live—and sometimes, how they have to live.” ¹⁷ For example, to understand the cultural pride of the French, one need look no further than their passion for good food and good wine. The rural communities of developing countries rely on what is available to them, accounting for some of the more unique delicacies Bourdain consumed. The food people eat, where people eat, and how they prepare food all function as windows through which one can see a people’s history, culture, and customs.

So, what would an audience witness if they observed the eating habits of Americans? According to Norman Wirzba, US eating habits are far removed from reason and order. Impatience is evident in the “desire to have fresh fruits and vegetables all year long, regardless of their taste and nutritional value, or the ecological toll long-distance transport takes.” ¹⁸ Over-eager eating results in the prevalence of fast food chains and highly processed convenience meals. The size of restaurants’ enormous portions reflects outsized appetites. The rejection of simple, locally grown fare, in favor of the exotic and the costly, exposes addiction to the exquisite. As Wirzba suggests, these traits are particularly galling given that humanity lives in “a world in which there are now as many dying, undernourished people as there are dying, overnourished ones.” ¹⁹ Those who partake purchase gluttony, in its many forms, at a high cost for all.

The ease with which Americans can access food creates a dilemma. If the typical US family eats generously during normal time, how does it make special the Thanksgiving feast, for instance? The answer reveals the confusion about feasting: “Since most Americans have all kinds of special things to eat every day, for many the only way to make Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts uncommon is by eating more.” ²⁰ Americans believe they are celebrating a perpetual feast, when in reality they are perpetuating an ever-growing gluttonous desire. What do such eating habits say about US history, culture, and customs?

The observations above point to a fundamental truth about feasting: godly feasting is not primarily about consumption. For that matter, neither is gluttony. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person” (Matt 15:11a, NRSV). Feasting and gluttony are on opposite ends of the same spectrum. Whereas gluttony is an inordinate desire for food and drink, feasting promotes the virtue of temperance, the desire for bodily pleasures properly ordered. The vice of gluttony uses food as a means toward self-satisfaction and control, to the detriment of one’s self and at the expense of one another. The virtue of feasting, meanwhile, sees food as a divine gift for sharing with glad and sincere hearts. Feasting happens in the context of celebration and is not primarily about consumption, “for in all manners of this kind it is not the nature of the things we use, but our reason for using them, and our manner of seeking them, that make what we do either praiseworthy or blamable.” ²¹

Distinguishing between feasting and gluttony also helps to place fasting within a proper framework. According to Wirzba, “Feasting is not the opposite of fasting. Gluttony is.” ²² If feasting were primarily about consumption, then fasting, which is the virtue of abstaining from food, would be its opposite. Both feasting and fasting, however, are primarily about sharing, thanksgiving, meditating on the good, and celebrating with community. Gluttony cultivates none of these qualities, thus its proper naming as the opposite of fasting.

Feasting and fasting, therefore, are two sides of the same coin. ²³ In the pursuit of temperance, feasting and fasting represent “two complementary and mutually correcting rhythms of a self-offering life.” ²⁴ For temperance to take shape within a person’s character, one must feast and fast. Fasting without feasting opens the door to the vice of unfeelingness and a life bereft of celebration. Feasting without fasting opens the door to the vice of gluttony and a life bereft of sobriety.

How feasting cures gluttony

The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle attested in each of the four Gospels. ²⁵ Jesus saw a large crowd before him and “had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34b, NIV). The disciples suggest sending the crowd away, but Jesus tells them to give them something to eat. The disciples are uncertain how to accomplish such a monumental task, as they have gathered only five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus tells them to get the crowd in order. Meanwhile, he blesses the food, and then he orders the disciples to distribute it. Miraculously, “all ate and were filled” (Matt 14:20a, NRSV). After collecting the leftovers, more remains than what they had in the beginning. ²⁶

While this miracle story serves to offer further proof of Jesus as the Messiah, the messianic dimension of the story does not exhaust its significance. This story also provides an example of how to feast well, and, as such, has pedagogical significance for training in the virtue of temperance.

Through feasting, one learns to share God’s good gifts with others. Note that Jesus does not distribute the food, but delegates that task to the apostles. One can argue that he wanted his disciples to witness the miracle firsthand, a miracle that happened by way of sharing. With respect to godly feasting, the lesson is clear: proper feasting involves sharing food with others. In other words, proper feasting promotes hospitality. Compare the mind-set of Jesus with the mind-set of the church in Corinth: whereas Jesus intended to share the abundance he possessed, some in the Corinthian church hoarded their food. Whereas the hoarding of food perpetuates the mind-set of scarcity, the sharing of food demonstrates the reality of God’s abundance. ²⁷ The mind-set of scarcity lends itself to a form of gluttony in which the person eats too ravenously or greedily. Sharing food corrects the desire to eat greedily.

To feast properly means to give thanks to God for the good gift of food and the enjoyment of it. Before distributing the loaves and fishes to the crowd, Jesus blessed and gave thanks for the food. Hartman writes, “In his frequent practice of offering a blessing before a meal, Jesus was connecting human need to natural bounty and God’s provision.” ²⁸ The Jewish people believed that God was present at their feasts because “people fed on food acknowledged to be a gift of God.” ²⁹

Although Paul does not specifically indict the Corinthians for not giving thanks before eating, their attitudes suggest they neither gave thanks nor ate with grateful hearts. The lack of thankfulness is evident in their inability to treat the food as a gift from God. Such a mind-set is like the inability to share because the person is eating too greedily. Eating with a thankful attitude acknowledges that God graciously gave food to the eater for health and enjoyment. The gift is not for one person, but for all. Thankful feasting corrects greedy eating.

Whereas gluttonous eating presupposes and breeds thoughtlessness, godly feasting presupposes and breeds thoughtfulness. Jesus told the disciples, “You give them something to eat” (Matt 14:16b, NIV). By doing so, Jesus forced the disciples to consider questions of how and from where they would find such a great amount of food. After the miraculous feasting, Jesus ordered the disciples to collect the leftovers. The disciples witnessed firsthand that not only were the people filled, but plenty remained.

Such an event requires contemplation. Such a figure as Jesus requires contemplation. Pieper asserts, “Festivity is inconceivable without an element of contemplation.” ³⁰ Such contemplation allows a person to succeed “in bringing before [the] mind’s eye the hidden ground of everything that is,” and the person “succeeds to the same degree in performing an act that is meaningful in itself [i.e. festivity], and has a ‘good time.’” ³¹ The contemplation of the good is what allows those who eat to fully enjoy the feast, to realize it, therefore, as godly feasting, and to find it pleasurable. Contemplation, in a sense, gives the feast’s participant eyes to see and ears to hear:

We cling to the feeling that a special spice, essential to the right celebration of a festival, is a kind of expectant alertness. One must be able to look through and, as it were, beyond the immediate matter of the festival, including the festal gifts; one must engage in a listening, and therefore necessarily silent, meditation upon the fundament of existence. ³²

Mindless consumption has no place in godly feasting, because without contemplation, it ceases to be godly feasting, and without contemplation eating becomes a dull act void of joy.

In stark contrast to proper feasting is gluttony, which regards “the basic human act of eating as a thoughtless refueling exercise,” serving “to demean human life and to deprive us of its pleasure.” ³³ The Corinthians needed reminding of the purpose of their gathering and the nature of the meal they were eating (1 Cor 11:23–26). For the glutton, food becomes nothing more than a consumable object without any sacred quality or value. Thoughtful feasting corrects thoughtless gluttony.

Finally, godly feasting celebrates God, God’s creation, and God’s people. Imagine the people’s reaction as this miracle unfolds, and they witness the revelation of their Messiah. This miracle is a cause for celebration, rejoicing, enjoyment, and praise of God. Such celebration can only exist in the context of praising God. Pieper writes, “The phenomenon of genuine celebration is really present only in religious acts in which [a human] as creature can grasp the truly ‘other’ and absolutely ‘new’ world of the glory of God.” ³⁴

Proper feasting includes the celebration of God’s good creation and God’s people. Pieper asserts, “Everything that is, is good, and it is good to exist. For [one] cannot have the experience of receiving what is loved, unless the world and existence as a whole represent something good and therefore beloved to [that one].” ³⁵ The celebration of creation bleeds over into thankfulness for what God provides through creation. ³⁶ Hospitality with respect to community also plays a role in the celebratory nature of feasting. Jesus broke down the social norms that said he should not eat with society’s marginalized, including women and children. Even so, he shared his food with all. ³⁷ The feast is meant to bring people together. ³⁸

Gluttony may seem like celebration in the US context, but it is not. Gluttony replaces love of God with love of food. ³⁹ As such, the glutton sees creation as a resource to exploit for the seeking of one’s own gratification. As evidenced by the 1 Corinthians text, gluttons do not seek community, since doing so would require sharing food. Celebratory feasting aids in correcting these adverse effects of gluttony.

How the church can promote feasting as virtuous practice

In her book, From Feasting to Fasting, the Evolution of a Sin: Attitudes to Food in Late Antiquity, Veronika E. Grimm notes, “Anthropologists . . . call attention to the fact that cooking is peculiar to humans in the same manner as language. Food habits are a language through which a society expresses itself.” ⁴⁰ Individuals, communities, and societies have often used the harsh language of excessive fasting and gluttonous overeating to express themselves. The church, however, has a language of its own. The language of the church, expressed in part through feasting, communicates a message of hope, a message the church is called to proclaim, as DeYoung explains: “Our mission and identity as Christians will include feasting as well as fasting. Human beings are made for celebration and delight too. Food is meant to be enjoyed.” ⁴¹ Thankfully, the church has several ways to communicate the virtues of feasting to a world in need of learning how to enjoy food properly and to treat it as a gift from God.

One way to proclaim the virtue of feasting is through returning to the use of the church calendar, which includes and gives credence to festive celebration. The church calendar represents the “manifestation of a perpetual though hidden festivity” ⁴² that was inaugurated in the Resurrection. Churches observe the popular high and holy feast days, such as Christmas and Easter, but the church can, in unique ways, celebrate other feast days as well. Pentecost is a birthday celebration of the church, in which people of different languages and ethnicities heard Peter proclaim the mighty works of God (Acts 2:1–42). Worship for that day can include a birthday celebration that includes foods from different countries giving the congregation a taste of John’s vision of heaven, a great multitude “from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne” (Rev 7:9b, NRSV). Feast days of saints, particularly days with special significance for a local congregation, can provide an opportunity to feast mindfully, remembering a hero of the great cloud of witnesses. The church calendar holds a treasure trove of options.

A more regular opportunity for feasting is Sunday, the Lord’s Day, always considered a feast day. ⁴³ The feast of the Eucharist is rooted in communal unity, hospitality as exemplified in Christ, and sharing of God’s bountiful abundance. The Eucharist can act as a tutor for proper feasting, which not only improves the life of the student but also improves the lives of the community and all creation. Viewing the Eucharist in this light gives validity to a weekly celebration of the Eucharist, because cultivating good habit requires repetition.

The biblical evidence suggests that a reasoned emulation of Jesus would entail incorporation of fasting and feasting. Ministers who organize the curriculum for Sunday School or Bible study groups, therefore, should consider a series on the food ministry of Jesus. This type of series would prove to be encouraging and convicting, as Jesus goes against many of the cultural taboos of his time and uses food to point people to his Father.

The church calendar, the Eucharist, and careful study of the food ministry of Jesus are sources of spiritual formation that prepare the church for the return of Christ. For those who trust in him, a wedding feast will be prepared. The children of God will celebrate the eternal feast uninhibitedly. That assurance alone should provide all the reason one needs to cultivate the good habit of feasting in the here and now.