Food is Medicine
The 1987
Danish drama, Babette’s Feast, offers
the perfect complement to Clement of Alexandria’s stoicism. Babette’s Feast is a deeply Christian
film about food wherein two devout Danish sisters allow
their cook, a French refugee, to prepare a feast in honor of their late
father's birthday, despite their spiritual concerns over the sensuality of
French cuisine. Babette had been head cook in one of the finest restaurants in
Paris. The film shows how powerful lovingly, prepared food can be for the
healing of mind, soul, and body - especially when shared in communion with
others.
Food, wine, and oil go together (Psalm 104), and spices get their flavor from essential oil. If it
smells wholesome and fresh and it came from a plant, what we smell is the
essential oil. The delightful tastes and smells of plants are part of God’s
providence. In my mind, essential oils are more like food than medicine, but depending
on your disposition to food that may or may not present a complete picture.
Clement’s main concern for Christians is
that we don’t use essential oils in excessive luxuriousness or sensual
licentiousness. Clement of Alexandria does not actually use the term ‘essential
oil.’ He speaks of ointments and unguents, but a quick glance through his
writing shows that what he means is aromatic oils, sometimes mixed with fatty
carrier oil, but not always.
Clement lists a number of plant sources: lilies,
cypress, spikenard, roses, myrrh, stacte (aloes), cassia, narcissus, myrtle,
and frankincense. His first admonition is against those who drench themselves
in unguents in order to be sexually alluring.
Here he is talking about the use
of essential oils as perfume. He believes it is effeminate for men to wear
perfume, but a few unguents are permissible for married women, as long as the
scent is not “overpowering to their husband.”
Essential
Oils for Healing
Clement does not, however, condemn their use
for medicine: “In the department of medicine, for healing, and sometimes also
for moderate recreation, the delight derived from flowers, and the benefit
derived from unguents and perfumes, are not to be overlooked . . . [they] are
most useful.” Clements quotes five Scriptural references to oils for spiritual
edification and as a basis for legitimate oil use:
·
Luke
7:37-38 - And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having
learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of
ointment. She stood behind him
at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry
them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with
the ointment.
·
Psalm 45:7-8 - Therefore God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness
beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
·
Ecclesiasticus
38:1-2, 5 - Honor the
physician for his usefulness, for the Most High made him; and the art of
healing is of the Lord. And the compounder of unguents will make the mixture.
·
Ecclesiasticus
39:13-14 – Listen to me, O
you holy sons, and bud like a rose growing by a stream of water; send forth
fragrance like frankincense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the
fragrance and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works.
·
Ecclesiasticus
39:26-27 - The basic necessities of human life are water and fire and
iron and salt and wheat flour and milk and honey, the blood of the grape and oil and clothing. All these are good for
the godly.
Clement recognizes that roots, plants,
and flowers have their individual properties: “some beneficial, some injurious,
some also dangerous.” (Obviously we would not want to use poison ivy oil
topically or take hemlock oil internally.) Clement gives several examples of
beneficial uses for oils, like these: narcissus calms the nerves, rose relieves
headaches, cypress helps one sleep, etc. Clement says that rubbing the feet
with unguents and massage also has beneficial effects. Clement recognizes that
oils have the ability to relieve all manner of ailments:
“God hath
permitted the production of oil for the mitigation of men's pains... Ointment
is to be employed as a medicine and help in order to bring up strength when
enfeebled, and against sinus congestion, colds, fatigue and depression, as
the comic poet says:
The
nostrils are anointed; it being
PRINCIPLE: CHRISTIANS USE ESSENTIAL OILS TO SUPPORT A
HEALTHY BODY WITHOUT EXCESSIVE SELF-INDULGENCE
There is no need to go into all the ways
essential oils support the body. That is what essential oil guidebooks are for.
Thank God for modern science and the tools we have to observe and record the
multiple, beneficial effects of essential oils. Today we are able to observe
and record both chemical and electrical interactions between essential oils and
the body. That is fascinating. It speaks to the wonder and glory of God’s
intent for plants and humans.
[i] All of the
quotes about oil from Clement of Alexandria, in this chapter, come from The
Instructor, Book II, Chapter 8
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