Five loaves and Two Fish: the Seven Sacraments?

[spauline]

Maybe I’m crazy, but I thought I would throw this out there to see if any theological explanation like this already exists.

In the story of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the thousands, there are parallel accounts in the Gospels. In Matthew’s rendition, there were SEVEN loaves and a few fish. In John’s rendition, there were FIVE loaves and TWO fish.

Now, maybe this is all just crazy and these details are just insignificant and have no meaning (i.e., these are just SECONDARY details with no particular meaning), but from meditating on this, I have come up with a theology of this that ends up coinciding quite well with Catholic Sacramental Theology.

First, we know already that the Church associates the EUCHARIST with these texts, as the miraculous feeding finds its fulfillment in Holy Communion, where Christ miraculously feeds the millions of Catholics with His very Body and Blood.

However, I was thinking that, actually speaking, any time we receive sanctifying grace, we are being FED spiritually, for sanctifying grace is truly a created participation in the Divine Life and Love of God. Sanctifying grace is truly like spiritual “food,” for it increases our love of God and strengthens us within our very being for further good works and love of God and neighbor. Hence, in a sense, ALL the Seven Sacraments are spiritual food, for they give us a greater share of sanctifying grace (if we are properly disposed).

Hence, it seems to me that the SEVEN loaves of Matthew, or the FIVE plus TWO pieces of food of John can be likened to the Seven Sacraments.

Continued….

 

[spauline]

…Continued

However, and this may be just that I’m crazy, but we can progress with further meaning. Specifically, why does John partition the food into FIVE loaves (which ultimately come from the EARTH) and TWO fish (which ultimately come from the SEA)? Well, there is a perfect analogy that comes from Sacramental theology. Specifically, we truly can partition the Seven Sacraments into FIVE and TWO. How? The answer has to do with the availability of Sacraments outside the Catholic communion. Specifically, of the Seven Sacraments, there are TWO of them, particularly Baptism and Marriage, which are still available to heretics. This is because they do not require a valid priesthood to confer. That is, as the Catechism points out, anyone may Baptize, even a non-Christian, if they intend to do what the Church intends. Similarly, Marriage is not conferred by the priest (although the priest acts as a witness). Rather, the man and the woman confer this Sacrament on each other. It can also be remarked that even savages (who are innocently ignorant of the Gospel) can attain Baptism of implicit desire. On that note, I am wondering if two savages who possess sanctifying grace from implicit desire of Baptism, if they married, would contract, in effect, a “marriage of desire.” On the other hand, the other FIVE Sacraments (Confession, Eucharist, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick) are not available to heretics or savages, as they require a valid priesthood to confer.

The analogy, then, is that we can conceive of the EARTH to be, appropriately, as St. Paul says in 1 Tim. 3:15, the pillar and “ground” of the truth, or, that is, the Magisterium, the hierarchy of the Church, as Jesus has said to build your house on ROCK (and Peter as well), or solid ground, as opposed to the shifting sand. Similarly, the SEA can stand for the chaos of life outside the Catholic communion, where the heretics and savages are tossed to and fro by the waves of error. Hence, of the Seven Sacraments, FIVE (the “loaves”) emanate from the EARTH, or the hierarchy of the Church, the priests, bishops, and pope, whereas TWO (the “fish”) are available from the SEA, that is, even in the total chaos of heresy and savagery, Jesus can feed these poor souls with the Two Sacraments that don’t require the earth of the Magisterium.

A final parallel comes from the Book of Revelation. The False Prophet, or the Beast that arises from the earth, has TWO horns “like a Lamb,” who has SEVEN horns. Again, maybe this is suggesting that heresy finds a good symbolic number in TWO, where even in the ultimate heresy of False Prophecy, it has the likeness of the two sacraments of heresy, as opposed to Christ, whose power lies in the Seven Sacraments He instituted.

Maybe I’m just crazy, but this seems to be a weird coincidence.

Does anyone know if any such argument has ever been made?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[spauline]

Oh, and another point. Not only is the objective reality that Protestants only have two sacraments, but strangely enough, they also THINK there are only two sacraments, although they are partially wrong in the two they have: they think they have Baptism and Communion, although in reality it’s Baptism and Marriage.

this is really wierd.

Scott

 

[Digitonomy]

Seven is one of the mystical numbers from scripture - so you’ll be able to find any number of parallels from where the number is repeated elsewhere in the Bible. But the symbolism you lay out is an interesting approach, and worth thinking about.

 

[spauline]

digitonomy:

Seven is one of the mystical numbers from scripture - so you’ll be able to find any number of parallels from where the number is repeated elsewhere in the Bible. But the symbolism you lay out is an interesting approach, and worth thinking about.

Thanks for the complement.

GB,
Scott