Donkeys and Horses
Donkeys and Horses By Fr. Claudio Doglio (Translated from Italian by L. Pavese) Donkeys and horses fill the biblical bestiary and are very important symbolic figures. Horses represent strength and power. They remind us of the pharaoh’s army lined up for battle. In fact, impressed in the collective imagination of Israel are the archetypical figure of the pharaoh’s army chasing the people and the saving intervention of God, who made the horses end up at the bottom of the sea. The ancient sea hymn celebrates that fundamental victory with these words: “[s]ing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant; horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.” (Es 15,21). Because of these words , the figure of the horse recurs as a noble, intelligent, strong, bellicose animal; a symbol of human strength but, for that reason, also the emblem of a self-assertive arrogance. A psalmist counterposed the worldly attitude of someone who relies on horses and chariots to the faithf...