Thou Shalt Feast no More at the Table of Life

I once spoke to a chef whose duty it was to provide The Last Meal for death-row prisoners, when the grim occcasion arose. He regarded it as an important, though small comfort to Souls facing the unthinkable---a physical comfort in the face of metaphysical panic, a crumb in the abyss. With great humility, he regarded his small role in these Souls' last moments of life, as a privileged one, and he carried out his duties with utmost earnestness and care. He recounted that most prisoners did ask for a Last Meal, and most ate their Last Meal.

The existence of this ritual evokes, perhaps deliberate, self-conscious echoes of The Last Supper, both exemplifying the symbolic significance of food in the human narrative.

There are also some ironic, unintended, but unavoidable intimations of the Christian story: The parallel between the condemned Nazarene and the dead men walking----many of them, like The Christ, innocent of any crime, but condemned to die by the might of hysterical mob-rule and by cowardly Governors, who, Pilate-like, fail to act in truth when called upon, allowing the sacrificial slaughters to proceed.

And, like Pilate, they wash their hands and afterwards return to rounds of stately banquets, with laden tables, untroubled that certain Innocents shall feast no more at the Table of Life.

Blessings on your table!
The Intellectual Foodie
www.your-healthy-eating-helper.com