This is an image from the movie, Babette's Feast. I have never seen the movie, but I read the short story by Isak Dinesen (pen name Karen Blixen 1885-1962). There were many intriguing incidents in the story, but the one that fascinated me the most was the speech General Loewenhielm made at the meal.
If you don't know the story, I'll give you the gist. It is about two virgin sisters. Their father was a pastor of a small Christian sect in Norway. He discouraged all suitors because he needed his daughters to carry on his work. The young men in the village joined the sect just in the hope that they could marry one of the pastor's beautiful daughters--as they were beautiful inside and out. But the pastor turned all the suitors away. The pastor gave a sermon on Mercy and Truth meeting. This sermon will become important, later.
Enter two strangers.
One is the opera singer, Achille Papin. He has come for a retreat. As a young man, he was quite popular but now his career is waning and he is trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. When he hears Phillipa sing, he offers to give her free singing lessons. He envisions training her to become a new phenom opera singer. Everything went well until Achille got carried away and kisses Phillipa. The lessons stopped. Achille didn't understand. He didn't kiss Phillipa. Don Giovanni kissed her. Achille went home to France.
The other stranger wasn't a foreigner but he wasn't from their village He was a fellow countryman. and a soldier. As a young soldier, Lorenz Lowenhielm led a degenerate life. His family, to punish and hopefully straighten him out, sent him to an aunt who lived in Phillipa and Martine's village. Once he saw Martine, he was infatuated. He resolved to become a better man worthy of her. Soon he is called for duty.
Years later, the pastor has died but his good works are carried on by the sisters. They perform charitable works by bringing meals to the elderly and sick. Religious meetings are still held in the sisters' home. The congregation has dwindled down drastically. The age of everyone is much older, including Phillipa and Martine. One day a refuge knocks on their door and falls across their threshold. She has a letter from Achille Papin. Achille explains that her name is Babette and her family was killed in the Franco-Prussian War and she herself is hunted. She needs their help and begs for mercy. Phillipa and Martine welcome her.
Soon everyone has accepted Babette.
Eventually, the one-hundredth anniversary of their father is approaching and the sisters are planning something to commemorate the date. Coincidentally, Babette has won a lottery. She has won ten thousand francs! Surprisingly, she wants to spend it on a dinner for the sisters' father's anniversary. At first, Phillipa and Martine refuse. Their father was a simple pastor and would not condone a celebratory dinner. But Babette has never asked for anything before. She always had done what everyone needed and asked. Eventually, the sisters agreed.
This dinner is a French feast. The villagers didn't know what to think when they saw Babette carrying a cage of baby quails. Their eyes popped out of their heads when a large turtle was wheeled through the village in a wheelbarrow. "Is that wine?" they suspiciously asked when they saw many bottles being delivered. "Wine!!!" Babette exclaimed. "This is Veuve Cliquot 1860!"
Coincidentally, Lorenz Lowenhielm was visiting his aunt when her invitation to the dinner came and he was invited also. He was true to his youthful vow to become the best version of himself that he could ever be and he is now a general.
The dinner was a culinary feast. It delighted the senses and the spirits. Everyone felt euphoric after eating Babette's banquet. The general felt moved to make a speech. I don't know if the guests recognized the general's speech, but it was the same message as the pastor's sermon, from long ago. How appropriate!
"Mercy and truth, my friends, have met together," said the General. "Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another."
"...Man, my friends," said General Loewenhielm, "is frail and foolish. We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and shortsightedness, we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason, we tremble....We tremble before making our choice in life, and after making it again in fear of having chosen wrong. But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims amnesty. See! that which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!"
So the pastor is honored and remembered at his own table just as the memorial of the Eucharist is presented on the altar.
Later, when Phillipa and Martine thank Babette for the exquisite dinner and say goodbye because they thought she would go back home to France since she won ten thousand francs. Babette tells them that she has no more money. The dinner cost ten thousand francs.
She spent it all for the celebratory dinner. Who spent all He had for us?
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