Pelican

At the museum, I stand before an icon. St. Francis kneels before the cross, eyes uplifted, hands outstretched. The suffering Christ looks down upon him. My errant eye sees a bird’s nest at the topmost of the cross. I move closer. It is a pelican, an ancient symbol of Christ. The pelican pierces its neck with its beak, blood drips into the mouths of the pelican’s hungry young. In fact, pelicans do no such thing. The icon’s implicit question does not concern literalism or accuracy but simply: “What might this mean to me?”

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!

Josh