The spiritual dimension of the commensality in the film "Babette's Feast" towards an ecumenical understanding of hospitality and the Eucharist

Abstract

Spirituality is the fully caring for life. Accordingly, to Faustino Teixeira in the article “Fabrics of Hospitality”, it is the capability to celebrate life in depth, that is, the human capacity to recognize that life has a profound dimension – from which radiates selfless love, gratuitousness, attention, courtesy and hospitality – and to rejoice in it. Unlike what is generally thought, spirituality is not restricted to temples and religious spaces, it concerns people rather than ethereal souls. Therefore, it permeates all aspects of everyday life. Nowadays, standing before the challenges provided by the dark times in which we live both in the fields of political and public health, the home becomes a privileged place for the cultivation of spirituality. In this article, we seek to explain the spiritual dimension of commensality according to an interpretative analysis of the film “Babette’s Feast” (1987), directed by Gabriel Axel, based on the homonymous work of Danish writer Karen Blixen. In our analysis, we seek to emphasize on the ecumenical understanding of the Eucharistic mystery that the film inspires.