What does the Lord Christ mean when He says that a son asks for bread, fish, or an egg?

Christ said: “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:11–13).

St. Augustine believes that the bread signifies love, fish signifies faith, and the egg signifies hope, since we ought to ask our Heavenly Father to help us to love, have faith, and hope. He says, “faith is signified by the fish, either because of the water of baptism, or because it remains unharmed by the waves of this world; and the Serpent is opposed to it, because it craftily and deceitfully persuaded man not to believe in God. Hope is symbolized by the egg, because the chick is not yet alive but it will be, it is not yet seen but it is hoped for—‘for hope that is seen is not hope’ (Rom. 8:24);—and the scorpion is opposed to it because whoever hopes for eternal life forgets the things that are behind and stretches himself forth to those that are before (Phil. 3:13) since it is dangerous for him to look backward, and

90 Dorotheos of Gaza, “On the Structure and Harmony of the Virtues of the Soul” in Discourses and Sayings . Cistercian Studies Series: Number 33, trans., Eric P. Wheeler (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1977): pp. 206–207.

he is on guard against the rear of the scorpion, which has a poisoned dart in its tail. Charity is symbolized by bread, for ‘the greater of these is charity’ (1 Cor. 13:13), and among foods bread certainly surpasses all others in value; the stone is opposed to it because the stonyhearted cast out charity.”⁹¹