MUSINGS: Away in a Manger
A few thoughts on food in the Bible
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6–7)
At 9:00 AM Christmas Day Mass this morning, Father T. discusses Pope Francis’s Christmas homily. The reason that the manger is such a prominent object in the story of Jesus’s birth—and there’s always a reason with God—is that a manger is a trough where hungry animals come to feed.
So the infant Jesus lying in the manger means that God Himself arrived on Earth to feed us humans, to satisfy our spiritual hunger, says Father T.
It’s a theme that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Eucharist—the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, which feeds us in the Holy Sacrament of the Mass every day and, if received with reverence and in a state of grace, helps us grow closer to God and increase our holiness.
In a memorable Pints with Aquinas episode, “Theology of the Body” expert Christopher West pointed out how deep the theme of eating runs through the New Testament and, really, through the entire Bible. It’s true; here’s some stuff I can think of just off the top of my head:
It was (symbolic) food through which Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin that messed up mankind and drove us out of the Garden of Eden.
During Passover, the Hebrews are instructed to smear the blood of a healthy lamb on their door posts so that the angel of death will pass by their homes. Then they are to consume the meat. On this night you must roast the lamb and eat all the meat. You must also eat bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. You must not eat the lamb raw or boiled in water. You must roast the whole lamb over a fire. The lamb must still have its head, legs, and inner parts. You must eat all the meat that night. If any of the meat is left until morning, you must burn it in the fire. (Exodus 12:8–13)
God feeds the Israelites with Manna from Heaven during their long walk to the Promised Land.
Psalm 34:8 says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Jesus’s very first public miracle is the turning of water into wine at the Wedding in Cana.
Jesus multiplies fishes and loaves of bread to feed a crowd of 5,000.
Jesus calls himself the “bread of life” (John 6:35) and says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53–56)
Jesus establishes the Eucharist at the Last Supper on the evening before he is arrested.
And finally, one of his “Seven Last Words,” as they are called, is, “I thirst.” (John 19:28)
Even after his Resurrection, Jesus eats a piece of fish to prove to the disciples that it’s really him and not some kind of ghost. (Luke 24:41–43)
And when he appears to the disciples for the third time, he not only makes them breakfast, but also implores Peter that, if he loves Jesus, “Feed my lambs” and “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15–17)
And this is just a tiny fragment of the many, many times the Bible talks about food and drink—either literally or in the form of a parable or metaphor.
And just like food caused us to sin in the first place, food (the Bread of Life) also causes our salvation. It’s incredible how the different pieces of the Bible come together and form a bigger picture when you know how to read it.
I’ll end with another passage from C. S. Lewis’s masterpiece, Mere Christianity:
What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could “be like gods"—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.
In other words, before Jesus became our Bread of Life, overcoming death and opening up eternal life to us, we were spiritually starving and dying without even knowing it. And the manger reminds us of that fact.
I wish you a Merry Christmas!