Skip to main content

Eat It

Today's first reading says: “The Lord GOD said to me: 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 as 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 2:8-3:4

The hand of God was stretched out to the prophet Ezekiel, and in it was a scroll with writing.  And God said, “Eat it.”  So Ezekiel ate the word of the LORD.  He then spoke that word to the “rebellious Israelites” with God hoping the people would heed those scroll-written words of warning about impending “lamentation, wailing, and woe,” – the siege and final destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.  

How often does God put words in our mouths?  During troubled times with friends, children, or spouses, the hand of God stretches out to us with a scroll on which is written the words: “Forgive, Love, Repent.”   And God says, “Eat it.”   When we do, it is “sweet as honey in our mouths; it feeds our bellies; and it fills our stomachs.”  Such is the effect of our words of compassion and mercy - on us and on those who receive them.

Deacon David Pierce


Comments