What's on the menu at the heavenly banquet?

[Ken_Grooms]

What’s on the menu at the heavenly banquet? When the saints are reunited with their physical bodies, will they enjoy their favorite foods? (I love steak!) And what about the heavenly manna, the Eucharist. Is that on the menu? I heard that more than one saint was sustained with only Communion while on earth. Is that evidence that the Communion is itself the heavenly banquet? Please help me. I’m a convert ignorant of such things.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Generally speaking, the “heavenly banquet” or the “wedding feast of the Lamb” are images used by Scripture to help us understand the joy of heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (CCC 1027).

Although the images of a feast in Scripture are intended to be understood as metaphors of the communion we are invited to experience with God and his friends, the saints and angels, it is possible that we may be able to do physical things in heaven, such as eat and dance. So long as we understand that the Scripture passages are not intended to be literal descriptions of heaven, it is harmless – and even fun! – to imagine what we would want to eat at a heavenly banquet. An interesting and quirky meditation on the joys of heaven and the fun that we may have in heaven is linked below.

Recommended reading:

A Travel Guide to Heaven by Anthony DeStefano