Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

In 1987 the Oscar for the best foreign-language film went to Babette's Feast. The film was based on a short story by Karen Blixen. The story is a comfortable account of a small village in Denmark with a charismatic preacher, his two daughters, 'his right and left arms.' They forsake love and marriage dutifully committed to the ministry. After his death, their efforts to continue a religious presence fail with past sins of the people.

One night, Babette appears after fleeing France where she had suffered the death of her husband. Her sister takes pity on Babette who serves the poor in silence. She wins the lottery and proposes to serve a meal to the community, a joy for her. The meal heals a broken community with forgiveness and charity. Even before this, it is the poor she serves, using her culinary skills to transform the meager offerings from the women into a 'banquet' for the poor.

In the Gospel, Jesus takes pity on the people and feeds them with an invitation to the banquet to come. The sharing of food empowers them to long for the coming of the kingdom. This prefigures for them the banquet we celebrate at every liturgy. Advent reminds us that the fullness of the kingdom is yet to come in Jesus’ return, anticipating in every Eucharist to be broken open like him who opens for us serving the poor, the homeless, and the marginalized. Babette is often considered a Christ figure, coming from another place, in quiet prayer, serving, and finally healing a community already in belief, by a banquet that nurtures healing, forgiveness, and love. This Advent, why not rent the film, a taste of the Kingdom?