Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - Tuesday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time
[Ezekiel 2:8 - 3:4 and Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14]Son of man, he then said to me, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was a sweet as honey in my mouth. He said: Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.
I once gave my dad a plaque on which was written: "Lord, help my words be gracious and tender today. Tomorrow I may have to eat them!" In Ezekiel's case, it is the Lord's words that he has to eat. And he sees that what is written on the scroll was "lamentation and wailing and woe!" At least the Lord made the scroll palatable even if what Ezekiel would have to say would not be always as sweet as honey! Jeremiah, too, speaks of finding the words of God and devouring them. We Catholics as a general rule have stayed away from the table of God's Word! We receive the Eucharist, but we are not known for our acquaintance with the Word of God in the scriptures. (As a pastor, it has always been frustrating to me to see people come in late and miss the Liturgy of the Word.) There are historical reasons for this due to an exaggerated fear on the part of post-Reformation church authority about individual interpretation of the Bible. That fear was mostly put aside at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) in its wonderful document on scripture (Dei Verbum [THE WORD OF GOD]). Today, more and more Catholics are learning to read the scriptures and they are discovering that the word "nourishment" is a very apt image for what they are gaining from the experience. In the case of prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, their prophetic call required of them that they be personally identified with the message of God! God's Word becomes a very part of them. The Second Vatican Council document on the Liturgy teaches that Christ is truly present in the proclamation of his Word. That presence is very "real" even if it is not the same as the consecrated host. Yet, to experience that presence, we do not have to go to the church building. We just need to pick up the Bible and read it. The spiritual practice of Lectio Divina (an old and spiritually valuable way of reading the Bible) is something I would recommend to every Catholic. It is like "breaking bread" with the Lord. AMEN
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