East of Eden: Bread of the Manger

Before there was sound, there was Word.

Before there was time, there was Love—

vast, uncontainable,

breathing galaxies into being.

And Love became flesh,

so that flesh might become love.

The Eternal bent low,

clothed in the smallness of a child,

laid where creatures feed.

The One who shaped the stars

rests now in a trough of straw.

The Source of all sustenance

becomes the food of the world.

The Unbounded becomes breakable,

so the frail may taste divine life.

In Bethlehem—

the House of Bread—

the Bread of Life is given.

The Word, who would one day say,

“Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood,

you have no life within you,”

first speaks through silence,

first preaches by presence.

He, who would later take bread

and bless and break it, saying,

“This is my body, broken for you,”

was first broken by love’s descent,

laid in straw, held in humanity’s arms.

Come, you who wander the long night—

there is light.

Come, you who thirst in the desert—

there is wine.

Come, you who hunger for more than this world can give—

there is living bread.

Come, behold the mystery:

the Infinite made intimate,

the Word made meal,

Love made flesh,

for the life of the world.

And I, as a priest,

East of Eden,

have much to say about many things—

yet here, my tongue is silent.

This is holy mystery,

the place where words fall short,

where presence speaks,

and we meet Christ,

Love outpoured.

Give us this day —

our daily bread.

-Rev'd Jon Swales