Sunday, February 16, 2014

I Can't Believe I Missed this Biblical Symbol

This is embarrassing.

The other day I realized I have missed a very obvious symbol in the Bible.

It isn't even in some obscure passage that we never hear in Mass.  In fact, we hear it every year at least once, and see reminders of it for weeks.

My only hope is that one of you out there missed it as well so I feel a little better.  

Ok, here it goes...

Jesus tells His followers that He is the Bread of Life, and whoever comes to Him will never go hungry.  Likewise, at the Last Supper, Jesus tells the Apostles to take and eat the bread (His body).  

In other words, Christ is "spiritual food" for them, and us.

Rewind to our our much-repeated Nativity Story.  Where did our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph lay the baby Jesus?

In a manger!

And what is a manger?  

A place where food is placed!  

Granted, normally it is food for animals, but in this case, it was The Bread of Life ... food for all of our souls!

Not sure how I could have missed that symbolism all these years.

God Bless.   
 

4 comments:

Victor S E Moubarak said...

You're not alone.

God bless.

Mary N. said...

And that's not the only "hint" God gave us, Michael. The name "Bethlehem" translates into "house of bread". Isn't that like a knock over the head? The Bread of Life was born in the house of bread and placed in a feeding trough!
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02533a.htm

Shirley said...

Canadians all have a little understanding of the French language; manger is the word for the French verb, to eat. So yes, I was familiar with this concept. I love how our faith keeps showing layers and layers of meaning as we delve deeper into it.

Michael said...

Victor: Thank you for making me feel a bit better

Colleen: I wondered if I had heard it at one point and forgot, which is quite possible. Either way, the Holy Spirit did give me a big nudge!

Mary: I never knew that fact, either!!

Shirley: Agree - the layers never seem to end!