Genesis 2:24:
...a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body [some translations: "one flesh."]
John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...
John 6:51, coupled with 1 Corinthians 11:23-24:
...the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.
...the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, "This is my body...'
Instance #1: Two individual and complete human beings become one flesh, or one body.
Instance #2: The second person of the Trinity---the Word---becomes flesh.
Instance #3: Bread becomes body, or flesh (in fact, the same flesh as in Instance #2).
Can reflection on any of these instances shed light on the others? One thing that I noticed is that the three "substances" that become flesh occupy three different planes of life: bread (being baked) is not living but is made from plant life, i.e. non-sentient life; a pair of individual human beings are living, sentient human life, each endowed with a soul, and also (by virtue of their being two of them) a small community or social life; the Word is the divine life.
What more can be said of this?
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