THE BANQUET OF LOVE | KAIROS GLOBAL | OCTOBER 2021

Intro: The Banquet is a short film centred on God’s love and the sacred banquet of divine love, the Eucharistic celebration.

In 2019, a consultant physiatrist working at a prominent hospital in Aluva¹ was inspired ‘to prepare a visual treat’ for children preparing to receive First Holy Communion. This was Dr. Remya Rinette. Months of prayer, discernment and discussion with JY leaders and Church authorities later, a collaboration by Jesus Youth and KCBC Media Commission evolved: The Banquet. 

‘The Eucharist is a true banquet, in which Christ offers himself as our nourishment. When for the first time, Jesus spoke of this food, his listeners were astonished and bewildered, which forced the Master to emphasise the objective truth of his words: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life within you (John 6:53). This is no metaphorical food: My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed (John 6:55).’ (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 16). The doubts, disbelief and even abandonment of his followers didn’t deter Jesus, instead he re-emphasised the truth of this mystery.

Most Catholics know the importance of the Holy Eucharist – the centre of our faith and our source of Divine life. Despite this knowledge deep within, most adults would acknowledge their difficulty to participate whole-heartedly during the Eucharist and experience its graces. Just as those first century listeners of Jesus in Galilee, many don’t get to see the glory of this mystery in its fullness, partly due to disbelief and lack of knowledge.

Reflecting on this, it occurred to Dr. Remya that if adults were unable to understand the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, how much more would it be for children to comprehend.  

While conventional catechism is vital and plays a huge role in the faith formation of children, formal textbook language, scholarly terms and explanations of theology – that First Holy Communion catechism focuses on – leave little scope to make things alive for children. If they can’t perceive a direct connection between the symbolism of Eucharistic celebration and their daily life, Eucharist remains alien to them. That aside, our children have an incredible world of animated movies, cartoons, games and shows that influence their thinking, imagination and even their behaviour and choices. 

This is where Dr. Remya was inspired to help children (and adults as well) understand the mystery of the Holy Eucharist if presented as a short movie with a gripping story-line, illustrating the love of God and Jesus’ invitation to join this heavenly banquet where we are nourished by the Host (the Lord) himself. The beauty and richness of the rituals and symbols of Eucharist would then be brought to life!  

There are certain everyday things and events that impact us over a lifetime; this short film was conceptualised to arouse the attention of children preparing for their First Holy Communion to the mysteries, spiritual celebration that happens during Holy Eucharist and Confession. With their curiosity and interest in these mysteries awakened, a world of powerful and attractive (Eucharistic) spirituality is opened to children. There is scope for them to search ardently and experience the encompassing love of the Lord in the sacraments. If an experience of human love can change lives, what of the experience of Divine Love, Agape, the quintessential gift for our children in a world which is deprived of true love. Through The Banquet, once children get to visualise the mystical events of the Eucharistic celebration in its beauty and vibrancy, their lives will be irrevocably connected with the sacred banquet of divine love, the Eucharistic celebration.

The host of the Eucharistic banquet is Christ, who is also the gift partaken at the banquet: ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:35). ‘I am the true vine’ (John 15:1).  It is humbling to realise that ordinary filming is too poor a lens to behold the actual spiritual events of the Holy Eucharist, especially the transubstantiation (the early Church was aware, from the very beginning that the Eucharistic mystery represented an unprecedented challenge to the human intellect); many of the events are demonstrated using visual effects (VFX) and computer generated imagery (CGI). 

From April 2019, discernment in prayer and discussions for this ambitious project continued, pre-production work started in January 2020. The project is under production with the first phase of filming at various outdoor locations completed. The second phase, shooting in a studio, is scheduled shortly. The post-production work of music scoring, dubbing, editing, VFX and CGI are expected to take around ten months. It will be two short films, forty-five minutes each, one depicting the Syrian Rite Mass in Malayalam, and the other, Latin Rite Mass in English. In a normal scenario, professionally filming such a movie and achieving required visuals and picture quality would require a huge budget. However Jesus Youth AV professionals, who have offered their services voluntarily and many other media specialists have provided their services at very low rates, enabling the minimal possible production cost.

While acknowledging the human and technical impossibility to recreate the Eucharistic mysteries, the team, moved by divine inspiration hopes this movie rouses a desire and curiosity in children for these mysteries. Apart from the excitement of external celebrations of First Holy Communion, if the children are motivated to seek and understand deeper about Confession and Holy Eucharist, this short film envisions a possibility for that passionate encounter with Jesus Christ in the Sacraments. They would get to see that the Eucharist is the greatest refuge, the place where they find mercy in any situation, solutions for the issues in their own life, family and society. An encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist will help them build a personal relationship with Jesus. It is the team’s fervent wish that children fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist that the lay faithful be strongly motivated to participate in Holy Mass with more passion and belief through the visual treat prepared by this film.

Though The Banquet mainly targets children, it is hoped to support the Universal Church’s evangelisation to attract people from secular backgrounds to the Blessed Sacrament, which is the source and centre of Catholic faith. At every step, the team has witnessed the providence and protection of the Lord. Along with the support from Church authorities and priestly intercessions, the team is looking forward to overcoming hurdles including the pandemic situation and financial needs, also with your support.