Eating Right for Everyone's Type

What surprises us when we look at Jesus? "Where they had been unaware and confused, they were enlightened, for Christ was the only one in whose words they felt their whole human experience understood and their need taken seriously, clarified." What surprises us in Jesus is this gaze, full of compassion for humanity, for the happiness of the individual, for each one, for every one who has a first and last name.

--Julian Carron, with quote from Fr. Guissani

Reading this tonight I went to thinking about Scripture, and particularly about Ezekiel chapter three. What did the messenger tell the prophet? Take the Word of God and memorize it? Take the Word of God and do laborious intellectual study over it? Quote it at length to non-believers? Put it on bumper stickers and t-shirts? No, he said "Take the Word of God and eat it."

Of course, all of the above actions may have a part to play in our devouring, internalizing, the Word of God. But tonight I see that what the world needs to witness is persons transformed into the image of Christ -- they need to see Christ in us. What a huge difference there can be between becoming Christ and merely talking about him. If I am transformed, or to the degree that I am, then I have Christ's compassion for others. I respect and, to the degree I am able, understand their needs. I then become an agent of attraction, and when I speak of Jesus, it can become clear that He is why -- He is my Why.

So I see that I am called to feast on Scripture to fuel the transformation of my soul. As a Lutheran I spent quite a bit of energy memorizing Scripture, which is a very valuable practice which can backfire. It has helped that these days I rarely use or hear the translations from which I memorized, so my tendency to glaze over on the too-familiar is diminished. For fresh daily nutrition, of course, the Church is way ahead of me by holding out to me the Liturgy of the Hours and the daily Mass readings. What I see tonight is my need for a renewed appreciation for meeting God in His Word through these sources which don't require me to come up with some meditation plan of my own.

A little metaphorical tangent here... I've been reminded yet again about how for proper health I really do need to "Eat Right For My Type". I've gotten off the band wagon of trying to proselytize others to this dietary change, and maybe I am still working on really convincing myself when I feel perfectly fine that if I indulge in a huge amount of whatever food I should not be eating, that there will be consequences in the following days. But, back to Scripture, it makes me think of the adage that "we are what we eat." How much self-discipline does it take to not feast our minds on things incompatible for our soul's Guest? How often are we (as was suggested in Fr. Richard's homily today) sacrilegious with ourselves -- treating as common that which is set apart for the sacred? How frequently do I presume that it doesn't really matter what choices I make, everything is always fine for my soul in the end? It makes me think that God had a pretty ingenious idea to give His chosen people extensive dietary restrictions. Eating differently from others around you does force you to constantly think about why you are doing it, and to find ways to pull it off. There's a parallel, I think, with our need for spiritual feeding...