Will there be food in Heaven?; Angels: Day 337

Will there be food in Heaven?; Angels: Day 337 June 25, 2017

angels_augustine_2Christ ate food in his resurrected body, says St. Augustine, and even angels in the Bible have really eaten. They do so not because they need to eat, but because they can; it’s a free exercise of their superior power. St. Augustine speculates  that the same will be true of our glorified bodies after the resurrection.

Is there any contradiction between the fact that Christ ate food after his resurrection, and the doctrine that in the promised resurrection state there will be no need of food? After all, we read that angels also have eaten food of the same kind and in the same way, not in empty and unreal simulation, but in unquestion- able reality.

But they did not eat under the pressure of necessity, but in the free exercise of their power. For water is absorbed in one way by the thirsting earth, in another way by the glowing sunbeams; in the former we see the effect of poverty, in the latter of power.

Now the body of that future resurrection state would be imperfect in its hap- piness if it could not eat food; but it would also be imperfect if, on the other hand, it were dependent on food.

I might enter on a fuller discussion here about the changes possible in the qualities of bodies, and the dominion that belongs to higher bodies over those of inferior nature; but I have resolved to make my reply short, and I write this for minds intelligent enough that the simple suggestion of the truth is enough for them. –St. Augustine, Letter 102

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Angels have eaten food, but they can take it or leave it. Do I always keep God at the center of my desire, or do I allow my appetites to lead me away from God?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, you gave us the food of angels to eat, the food of the whole world, our Lord Jesus Christ: remember in your love all who are fed by this heavenly food.


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