Acquiring the Taste

Though most people do not think of taste in this way, it is true that taste is our most intimate sense. It is impossible to taste at a distance. David Steindl-Rast explains,

Only one sensation puts us in even closer touch than touching: tasting. Seeing allows for a great distance from what we see – and unimaginably vast distance, in fact. Standing under the night sky, we look at stars so far away that the light we now see started traveling when dinosaurs were still roaming on Earth. Our range of hearing is incomparably closer, our range of smelling closer still. Touching allows for no distance at all, it gives only surface contact. But tasting what dissolves on our tongue dissolves the barriers between subject and object. What we have tasted we know “inside out.”[1]

Taste is unique in that it is our most intimate sense. In order to taste something, it must become part of us. We become one with whatever we ingest. The object we taste and subsequently consume (unless we spit it out) will impact our entire being. It will bring the pleasure of delight or the pain of heartburn. It has the capacity to increase our body mass, bring health to our bodies, or harden our arteries. It even possesses the possibility of killing us, that is, if we ingest poison. For this reason, we tend to be more careful about what we eat than about what enters through any other sense.

Taste is not only an intimate sense, it is a sustaining sense. It nourishes us. If we lose our appetite we perish. Without food or drink we die. We can survive without all the other senses, but if we lose taste, we are doomed.

Finally, taste is a social sense. It unites us with others:

The other senses may be enjoyed in all their beauty when one is alone, but taste is largely social… Throughout the world the stratagems of business take place over meals; weddings end with feast; friends reunite at celebratory dinners; children herald their birthdays with ice cream and cake; religious ceremonies offer food in fear, homage, and sacrifice; wayfarers are welcomed with a meal… If an event is meant to matter emotionally, symbolically, or mystically, food will be close at hand to sanctify and bind it. Every culture uses food as a sign of approval or commemoration.[2]

Meals together with family and friends create memories of love. Our most intimate occasions with others almost always involves some kind of food – whether snacks, beverages, or a bounteous and elaborate meal. Many families share personal recipes that have been handed down through the generations.

Taste in the Bible

Taste is an intimate sense, a sustaining sense, and a social sense. These three aspects of taste are prominent in the Bible.

First, God’s personal revelation sustains us and nourishes us. Jesus himself taught that “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4). Jesus invites us to receive God’s word deep into our very being and allow it to energize our actions. In one episode he sends his disciples away to acquire food in town while he speaks to an outsider by a foreign well. After sharing God’s word with her, his disciples return and are shocked by his actions. It was not socially acceptable for a man to be speaking alone with a woman, much less a Samaritan woman with a bad reputation in her community. But Jesus responds to their surprise with these words: “I have food to eat that you do not know about… My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work” (John 4:32, 34).

After his resurrection, Jesus challenges Peter three times to “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17). Peter will do this by feeding people with divine words of grace, love, and acceptance. Peter communicates this to his followers by inviting them to earnestly desire to fill their mouths with holy words. He writes, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3).

This is necessary, for God’s word transforms our lives by becoming part of us. The prophet Jeremiah typifies the appropriate response to divine revelation: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts” (Jeremiah 15:16). The psalmist also expresses the same sentiment: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103)

This appropriation of God’s word goes beyond casual knowledge. It is not merely a matter of intellectual assent. It is intimate, personal, and received knowledge. It is not just tasted, but savored, enjoyed, and swallowed. This prevents us from a superficial encounter with God. In order to be transformed by God’s word we must take it deep into our being. It must nourish and empower us.

For this reason, we cannot be skeptical about taste. We either swallow food or we spit it out. But once we have eaten something, we have committed ourselves to it. Like Alice in Wonderland or Neo swallowing the Red Pill, there is no turning back. Our experience will never be the same in light of what we have consumed.

Taste highlights God’s desire for intimate union with us. Be receiving God’s word as food for our souls, the word effects what it symbolizes. God is in us and we are in God. There is no longer any separation between us. The bond is intimate and complete. As the old saying goes, “we are what we eat.”

Food not only unites us with God, but it unites us with others. Indeed, food is a sacrament of grace. The church’s central identifying act is sharing together in the Lord’s Supper. As “people of the table” we gather around Jesus, who is the Bread of Life and the True Vine. The spiritual food he gives us is true food and true drink (John 6:35-58). Through the Eucharistic sacrifice Christ gives us himself. By participating together in the Eucharist, we testify of God’s abiding within us.

As people of the table, our community is bound together by a shared participation in Christ leading to shared life together as a family of holy priests. The greatest act of worship, the greatest act of familial love, and the most necessary food for our souls is our sacrifice, celebration, and sustenance as God's spiritual community. We unite around Christ, sharing his body and blood as our sacrifice, our bond of blood, and our spiritual food. When viewed in this light, the Eucharist is revealed to be the sign of spiritual community. It is for this very reason that we regularly repeat this central act of love and unity. This act defines us as it defined the early church: “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46).

It makes sense, therefore, that the climactic picture of reconciliation with God and others is the “marriage feast of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). The end of all things is pictured as a sumptuous and bountiful feast: “The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear” (Isaiah 25:6). The only thing we need bring to the party is our hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
   come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
   come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
   without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
   and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
   and delight yourselves in rich food. (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Taste and See

There is not a large semantic domain to describe various tastes. Our words are relatively limited in describing taste. The four major tastes our tongue recognizes are sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. We can add further descriptors such as hot, cold, spicy, wet, dry, tangy, and spicy, or we can describe something as tasting like something else (“Tastes like chicken”), but overall, the range of words is limited. And yet, we all know that taste is more than these words can describe. This highlights an important aspect of taste – taste demands experience.

We cannot really “know” what something tastes like through words alone. In order to really taste something we must receive it into our bodies. When we allow food to enter our mouth, dissolve in our saliva, and go into our stomach, it becomes part of us. It affects us – empowering, enabling, delighting or disgusting us. But there can be no impact unless we directly experience it. We must “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Unless we receive food, our knowledge of its goodness remains woefully inadequate. We can see, hear, smell from afar, but with taste, we must completely give ourselves over to the object we consume.

The theologian Jonathan Edwards described the difference between hearing and experiencing God through the use of honey. Reason alone allows us to perceive truth but not experience its goodness. Therefore, in order to truly know goodness we must directly participate in it. According to his example, we may know honey is sweet but we may only delight in the sweetness of honey by tasting it with our own lips. It is not reason alone that allows us to enjoy honey but the actual tasting of honey that manifests its full benefit, its true sweetness. In other words, taste touches us more deeply than mere intellectual reflection, because taste awakens the heart. This knowledge is not just rational but transformational. It is not just different in degree but in kind. It is the difference between knowing with the head and knowing with the heart.

Acquiring the Taste

One last thing about taste demands attention. In our fast food society where we eat to live, it is easy to chug down food without giving any thought to its nutritional value. But in order to truly benefit from God’s word as our soul-food, we must learn to savor what we taste. Some of the richest, best, and most nourishing foods take time to enjoy. In order to get their full impact, we must develop a mature palate. We must acquire the taste. Not everything we receive will be instantly pleasurable. Some divine revelation is, at first, bitter to our taste.[3] Like coffee, beer, wine, and caviar, we must acquire a taste for ultimate satisfaction.

For too many people, God’s word has become bland to the taste. To regain a healthy sense of taste, we must learn to savor what we consume. For even though God’s word becomes bland, it remains as nourishing as ever and vital to the well-being of the soul.

Have you “tasted the heavenly gift”? Have you “tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come”?[4] Perhaps you need to acquire the taste. The first step is simply taking the risk of receiving God’s word. Repeated consumption will promote a greater desire for the rich nourishment of divine revelation. But you must begin by opening your mouth and having the courage to find life in the True Bread and True Vine. You must “taste” and then you will “see that the Lord is good!”

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2007