The Noblest of Birds, part 2

Today we return to considering the typology of the eagle. So, let’s consider how the eagle produces and raises its young and what this can teach us about Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. According to the legend, the eagle produces three eggs. When the eaglets have hatched, the eagle makes them look directly at the sun. If any hatchling will not look into the sun, then the eagle throws it out of the nest to perish. When the eaglets are grown, then the eagle flies above the nest to show them how to fly. So runs the legend.

The typological interpretation runs thus: The three eggs represent how Jesus Christ is the father of three sorts of men—Christians by the New Covenant, Jews by the Old Covenant, and all other men by the fact that He is their Creator and by His coming to save all men (see 2 Cor. 5:15). It is only in the New Covenant that Christ forged that we have a full understanding of how to be saved and are clearly offered that saving, or sanctifying, grace through the Seven Sacraments. However, God, Who is not bound by His Own Sacraments, can and does offer sanctifying grace to everyone that believes in Him through faith (insofar as one can conceive of Him) and that lives a holy life. (Obviously, the Jews have a better chance here than the pagans since they know and follow God’s Law, at least as it was revealed through Moses.)

 However, even as salvation is open to all, so no one, not even a Christian, can be saved unless he personally receives Jesus Christ as his Savior. This is the meaning of the eagle forcing its offspring to look at the sun (the sun also being a type of the Son—more on that in a later lesson). Unless someone is willing to open their eyes from the darkness and look upon the light of Christ, allowing something like the pain of eyes adjusting to bright light, then that person will perish for eternity in Hell. Therefore, having accepted Christ through a life of faith and works, the Christian is then taught by Christ how to ‘fly’ to Heaven by a virtuous life. This is the meaning of the eagle teaching its offspring to fly. Thus, the Lord says in Scripture, “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself” (Exod. 19:4). Just as the eagle teaches its young to fly by giving them the example of its own flight, so Christ gave us in His life on earth the ultimate example of the life of virtue so that we may imitate Him. (Notice also how the eagle is here a type of both Christ and the Christian.)