Our Venerable Mother Theodora of Alexandria. Post-feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God.
Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients.
Ephesians 1:7-17; Mark 8:1-10.
Read Ephesians 1:7-17
The seven baskets of leftover bread are spiritual food. In the earlier multiplication, twelve baskets remained; here there are seven. Are these incidental? Evidently not, because later Jesus asks the disciples to remember both numbers.
The twelve baskets point to Israel and its twelve tribes. The seven appear to point beyond Israel toward the Gentiles—the seven nations that once occupied Canaan. This miracle follows Christ’s encounter with the Greek Syrophoenician woman. Jesus tells her that the children must be fed, yet she answers that even the dogs beneath the table eat the children’s crumbs. Her faith obtains healing for her daughter. Now, in Gentile territory, there are not crumbs but seven baskets overflowing.
God’s promise was given first to Israel, but His banquet was destined to embrace the nations. We can scarcely appreciate how difficult this was for Jews whose ancestors had suffered centuries of Gentile oppression and atrocities.
Consider September 11. The terrorist organizers chose the date to reverse the memory of the Muslim defeat at Vienna on September 11, 1683. On this 25th anniversary, we ask: how can Christians who suffered centuries of conquest, enslavement, terrorism, and bloodshed at the hands of Islam sit with Muslims at God’s banquet? What becomes of justice? Heaven cannot flatten good and evil into sameness. We may understand what Jews felt upon learning that their bread would be shared with Gentiles.
Jesus Christ is the difference.
He takes the bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and gives it. He does the same with us. In His hands, enemies encounter truth, repent, and are transformed. Evil is not excused; it is conquered. The human heart is broken open, blessed, remade in love, and given.
We pray that Muslims may share the Bread of Heaven by loving the One who loved them and gave His life for them, so that we may welcome them to the Lord’s banquet as our Gentile forefathers were welcomed by the Jewish Christians.