Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - Tuesday in the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
[Ezek 2:8-3:4 and Matt 18:1-5, 10, 12-14]As for you, son of Man, obey me when I speak to you: be not rebellious like this house of rebellion, but open your mouth and eat what I shall give you. It was then I saw a hand stretched out to me, in which was a written scroll which he unrolled before me. It was covered with writing front and back, and written on it was: Lamentation and wailing and woe! He said to me: Son of man, eat what is before you; eat this scroll, then go, speak to the House of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat. 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. [Ezekiel]
I once gave my dad, who was a state judge, a small plaque to hang on his wall. It had the following prayer on it: Lord, let my words be gracious and tender today, for tomorrow I may have to eat them! The expression, "I had to eat my words!" refers to the consequences that may flow from what we say when we become victims ourselves of those words! The prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah [15:16] speak of eating the words of God. The Book of Revelation in the New Testament also speaks of eating a scroll before prophesying! [Rev. 10:15]
The way in which God becomes a part of our very being includes eating, as we know from the celebration of the Eucharist! But the word of God requires that we hear what is said or written and consume it as we would anything we hear or read and internalize it so that it becomes part of our identity. When this fails to occur, we often say, "It went in one ear and out the other!" How often does this occur when we hear scriptures read at Mass, or even when we read them privately if we allow our attention to wander? Even so, I hear people speak of a "hunger" for the word of God, and the Vatican published a "homiletic directory" on preaching which speaks of feeding the congregation with God's word just as they are fed with Christ's body.
The Bible is more accessible in some ways than the Eucharist and can be a true "pantry" of the word of God for us to consume! Poor preaching, alas!, can stymie that word, but we can read on our own. While the image of taking a bite out of our Bible may be silly, we can ask how we absorb so many words from our surrounding culture that challenge God's word. Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the disciple John (in Revelation) give us a good image to consider. If the word of God becomes part of us, we need not worry about having to eat what we say. AMEN