Like a Pelican

“...we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us. This we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil, where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner...”Hebrews 6:18-19

Ever since the pandemic lockdown, which coincided with my recuperation from my surgery, I have taken to “traveling” vicariously through YouTube. I have gone around the Holy Land which was a trip we planned for last year. Yesterday, I watched a tour of the St. John Cantius Church in Chicago. It was voted the most beautiful church in the US in 2016. It’s unique baroque interior has remained intact for more than a century and what I loved hearing about from the priest, Father Joshua Caswell, were the many treasures and relics. There’s a a nineteenth-century copy of the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa adorned with jeweled crowns and Versace necklaces personally blessed by Pope John Paul II. There are a myriad of symbols embedded on the floor, windows, walls, etc. 

The most fascinating tidbit I learned was about the symbol of the pelican above the tabernacle. Early Christians and Christians in the Middle Ages used the pelican as a symbol for Christ, for His love and the sacrifice He made on the cross. Legend has it that in times of famine, the mother pelican would wound its own breast to feed its young with her blood. Just like the pelican who died so her chicks would live, Jesus shed His own blood that we might have life, and He continues to feed us through the Eucharist. Because of Jesus, we can hold fast to hope, and the light that is beyond the veil.