Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

A TIME TO PRESS ONWARD 171So, in this interpretation, the ostrich comes off in a much betterlight. Its egg is hung above the lamp to lay it bare to the gaze ofGod, just as we are always laid before the gaze of God, revealed tohis sight. These and similar meditations I have kept in my mindthroughout my months of living in this monastery when I look upat the oil lamps.But last night I saw a scrawny desert rat crawling along a groovein the wall, creeping very slowly and with great stealth. It proceededto slide down the wire till it came to the egg. However, when ittried to navigate the large, smooth surface, it couldn’t get a grip. Itslittle claws had been so tightly closed around the wire that when itcame to the egg, it couldn’t open them wide enough to hold onto it.So it slipped off the egg and fell to the ground. The rat seemed tobe injured by the fall. It scurried away in great discomfort, havingfailed to obtain the oil that it wished to drink from the lamp below.So it turns out that the eggs actually have a practical purpose. Theykeep the rats away from the lamps, away from the oil reserve whichthey might otherwise try to drink, desert rats being omnivorous.How interesting that a little observation can reveal the hiddenmeanings of things, that the explanations that people give are oftenonly part of the story. I don’t question for a moment the symbolismattached to the ostrich eggs suspended over the oil lamps. But I believethere was a practical origin to this custom which then becameelaborated into a variety of symbolic and spiritual interpretationsthereafter. This may be just one example of many explanationsgiven in religious and civil societies by which we try to account forthe ways handed on to us, not so much in terms of the practicalreasons for which they were started, but in terms of the symbolicinterpretations which they later acquired.Blessings GraspedMAY 9, SATURDAYIt seems to me that the number of pilgrims has been increasingthroughout the Easter season. Today the church was crowded withthem. Many of the monks who ordinarily mill about the monasteryseem to be hiding. The pilgrims are beginning to oppress them.The “dispensation” of the Easter celebration has passed and themonks do not wish to be seen. They do not wish to be taxed by somany requests to converse, to pray, to confess, and to bless them. I