A Time To Feast
“Babette’s Feast” was not a box office blow out of the “Titanic” or “Lord of the Rings” caliber. But it did win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1988. And since that time, the film has continued to create dialogue among moviegoers, including nine LIT-512 students this past week.
In a class entitled “Eucharist,” you might wonder what we were doing watching a Danish adaptation of a short story, complete with subtitles. Yet the imagery and dialogue in “Babette’s Feast” is rich with Christian symbolism. As an undergraduate student, I watched this film as part of my “Religion and Film” class with Sr. Elena Malits, CSC. We discussed how each character lived his/her faith, what role the world played in influencing their faith, and the role community had in our celebration of life.
Without wishing to ruin the film’s ending—in case you were going to rush out and rent it—the climax of the movie comes with the feast Babette creates. Throughout the film, the viewer comes to recognize the dichotomy between the profane and the sacred, between the ordinary and the extraordinary. In the creation of her banquet, Babette shows those gathered around her table—as well as those gathered around the screen—how to look at the world through sacramental glasses. (One might stop and wonder how the Gospels portray Jesus in the Last Supper.)
Is this not what we strive for when we gather around the Eucharistic table? Do we not ask the One who has prepared the feast to show us how to live anew? Like those arriving to Babette’s feast, we may come with reservations (which we might name as hard-heartedness, anger, greed, etc.) but the food we partake in gives us great strength. It leaves us full and heartily satisfied. Suddenly all our reservations dissipate.
What a gift this film is! And what a true gift it is to be able to participate in the Eucharistic banquet, a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that is to come…