(Written Summer of 1994. Slight updates 1999)

St. Clement of Alexandria reminds us that everything Jesus spoke had a higher or spiritual meaning: everything Jesus spoke was in parables. "The Apostles accordingly say of the Lord that 'He spake all things in parables, and without a parable spake he nothing unto them'" (Stromata VI :15). St. Clement explains that since all things were made by Him, anything spoken by him must have been in parables: this includes the Law and the Prophets. Scripture, which is the Lord's words handed down by men of God, must also be considered to be parables. When we read them, we should try to find and distinguish the meanings hidden within.
    As a side point of interest, I will point out that our own lives, which are made and sustained by God, can also be seen as parables: the stories which can be told of our lives can be used to help others as they journey in the faith. When one can see that the lives of the Holy Prophets, Saints, and Patriarchs are parables which are found in Scripture, and we understand that the current situations in the lives of the people of the world today are also parables for future generations, we can use this as an examination of all history: history is one long epic story, which takes many smaller stories and combines them into one great story by the Lord. In fact, not only is it epic in proportions, it is highly mythic, and all the intricate parts of all the individual stories taking place form one large, united whole which can only be understood when all of the story has been said. In discussing this, we can be brought to understand that the work of the Incarnation is in itself the means of grounding the myth that the Logos has spoken, into the reality of the life of the Logos itself: the Logos, the Word, has taken on all words; the Logos, the rule of life, has taken within itself all of nature and the rules established by it The Logos is the great Word of the Father, and creation is in one since, the word of the Word.
    When Moses received the Ten Commandments from the Lord at Mount Sinai, he shattered the original tablets which he had received, and he had to make a new set of tablets which the Lord wrote upon. This event itself is a parable given to Israel, and to all who read the accounts of this event, but it is more than a parable explaining life, but a prophetic parable indicating the Two Covenants: one given at Mount Sinai, the other the Covenant of Grace given by the Lord's Incarnation (Gal 4:24-30). Yet, there is further meaning, deeper and more obscure: it indicates that there really is one Covenant, but dispersed into two different modes of teaching given by time. That the two Covenants are one can be seen both by St. Clement of Alexandria who says that the Catholic Church is the "unity of one faith- which results from the peculiar Testaments, or rather one Testament in different times by the will of one God" (Stromata VII:17), and from the fact that the two sets of tablets are of same origin, purpose, and message. We must understand that this also shows us that the way of God is one, despite our own mode of understanding God's ways. A covenant is not some arbitrary rule that God gives, but rather, it is a revealing of what is already established by God. It is not something made and broken, but it is something even when "broken", it will still remain.
    To be further involved with the story and its prophetic nature, let us look at how the first set of tablets are destroyed, and the significance which can be ascertained from their destruction. Moses, a man, after receiving the tablets from God, threw them at the base of the mountain in anger when he saw the apostasy which the Israelites had entered. With this event, we should remember that the Messiah is a prophet like Moses. Moses told the Israelites " The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken" (Deuteronomy 18:15). With this reminder, we learn some significant facts about the Messiah, and actions which this event prophesied about: 1) He would "destroy" the "covenant" or "law" handed down to Moses 2) the "breaking of the law" will come from a time of apostasy within Israel (what greater apostasy can there be but the rejection of the Messiah promised to Israel, who is also God Himself visiting His people in the flesh of man) 3) that the 'destruction' will be from a man (we must never lose sight that Jesus is fully God and fully man). All three of these were fulfilled by Jesus- His death and resurrection brings about the perfect sacrifice which the law foretold; Jewish apostasy was at its greatest, not only rejecting their God, King, and Messiah, but that they seized Him and brought Him to His death on the cross. That Jesus is fully man, John boldly testifies, in a time when the Gnostic heretics were stating that Jesus was only a spiritual being. To go even further, the breaking of the Lord's body in the Eucharist is foretold by the breaking of the tablets. That Moses had to make a new set of tablets, which God once again wrote upon signifies even more of the life and sacrifice of Jesus. A man sets forth the tablets, and God writes upon the tablets. Jesus, the Incarnate God, writes upon the eternal tablets in the heavenly tabernacle- where resides the eternal Covenant of Grace, which was foreshadowed in the Law and fulfilled and given by Jesus (Heb 8, 9). That the Law foreshadowed the Covenant of Grace signifies the truth is saying that there is one Covenant in eternity, but the Covenant has modes which are reflected in time.
    "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me" (John 5:46). The Pentateuch written by Moses- reflecting upon his own life and the life of the righteous before him, is in itself a writing about Jesus- a parable of God's glory wherein can be found the prophecy of a risen Lord, a new Covenant (which is not new), and the death of the Son of Man. In the parable given by our Lord, we can learn more about the prophetic foreshadowing that the Jews received. Yet we should not stop here. Like all of the Lord's parables, we are told what the Lord does for us, but we must never forget other aspects of the parables which are meant to teach and train us, and leading us into a state and understanding and preparation for the events which God unfolds in our lives. Just like before, the Lord can become angry at the true Israel, which is now found in the world as the Church. We must strive for truth (which is God), and never forget two precious commandments- to love God and to love our neighbor. With these, we can find a stronger presence of the Lord and the continued growth in knowledge and understanding about God that a man can have when one continues to grow in love. God is love, and the man who knows no love, does not know God. The love which is being talked about is agape, which is the love of charity. If we have no charity for others in our souls, do we have the right to say we know God?