God’s Word is Sweet: Family Reflection VIdeo

I was having lunch with a grown nephew the other day and I saw him picking away at his food, separating out little flecks of green which appeared to be parsley or some other green vegetable and I was reminded how finicky he was as a child when it came to eating certain vegetables.

He had a mother my sister who aided and abetted his refusal to eat certain vegetables and certain table foods. Not so with my sister and her children who lived next door. There was no aiding and abetting her children who did not like certain foods or vegetables. Her children ate what was put before them. At times some may have resisted and feigned illness but usually they relented and obeyed.

            The exchange between God and his prophet Ezekiel in the Scripture reading today recalled those family dinners I witnessed. Today God hands Ezekiel some pages that have writings on them, on the front and back. The writings unfortunately are not love notes rather harsh condemnations of God’s people and their failure to follow through on the commitment they made to God and that God made to them. Ezekiel was told to digest the writings. He was also told that he would find them to be sweet not because the writings were sweet rather sweet because the writings came from God. He told Ezekiel to go forth and bring God’s message to the people.

            Just as some children and adults refuse to eat certain vegetables because they don’t like the taste there are young people and adults who rarely read or hear the Word of God. They never acquire a taste for it. It is regrettable that in some instances they were not told, “try it, you’ll like it”.

            But today we have a wonderful example of someone who growing up tried it, liked it and lived it. St Claire. She lived and witnessed a contemporary who was made to try it, for some years lost the flavor of what he heard or read in the home but would rediscover the sweetness that God told Ezekiel he would find when he ingested God’s word. I’m referring to Francis of Assisi.

Like Francis, Claire gave up everything to follow Jesus. Both she and Francis evidenced what Jesus saw in children as requirements for Christian living. They were humble and dependent. They thought less about their own needs and turned their lives over to the care of God and became totally dependent on God.

            I visited Claire’s convent in Sam Damiano, on the outskirts of Assisi. I saw the stark dining room with its wooden tables and chairs. The bare wooden floor that Claire and her sisters slept on. The window from which she held up a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament when the convent was under attack by the soldiers of an invading army. She was heard to pray, “Good Lord, protect those I cannot protect”.

            Such a life as it was could only have happened by ingesting every word that came from the lips of the Lord, refusing none lest she deny herself the sweetness that God also intends for each one of us.

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