Striving for the Seed

Tracing the Seed in Samuel (2)

Clothing expresses the mystery of man’s union with the world: man wears the world on himself as it is incorporated into his body, so that his motion and activity shapes out the motion of the garment with which he is invested. We see the close connection between food and clothing from the earliest chapters of Genesis: after the man and woman eat of the fruit of a tree, they wear garments made from the leaves of a tree. This garment is replaced with the skins of an animal, which constitute the other source of possible food in the world. Man wears what he eats and eats what he wears. It should not be surprising, then, that the fundamentals of the liturgical system of Israel is food and clothing. The priests wear sacred garments and prepare sacred food. In the last post, we observed the conflict which initiates the Book of Samuel: the House of Eli had been elected to wear the linen ephod before God, but the sons of Eli defiled their office. Thus, God swears to cut off the House of Eli from service before him and to raise up in their stead a faithful priest. It is in this same context that we read of Samuel’s wearing the linen ephod before God as he grows up in the tabernacle. Samuel is the son of God, reborn in God’s House by the divine Word.