WE BECOME 

WHAT  WE  EAT 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 19^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “We Become What We Eat.”

That’s a 5 word bumper sticker truism if we ever heard one.

“We Become What We Eat.”

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from the 2^nd and 3^rd chapters of the Prophet Ezekiel triggers this homily. 

Ezekiel is told to take and eat.

So he takes the scroll – which has writing on both sides – eats it – digests it – then speaks it out in his homily. I get that. I do that.

We get that image – because we do this very thing every day. Take and eat. Take and read. 

So we’re familiar with Ezekiel’s words – because we’re familiar with this everyday reality.

We’re all ears. We’re all mouth. We're all eyes.

We spend our days taking it all in - digesting it - processing it - being effected by everything.

We become what we read. We become what we eat. We are the evening news. We are Morning TV shows. We are our conversations. We are our coffee breaks. We are our comments and our gossip. We are our phone calls. We are our e-mails. We are out everyday conversations.

We are what we eat. We still remember those words we heard years ago: “Garbage in – garbage out.”  “Good stuff in – good outcome coming out.”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Today’s gospel - Matthew 18: 1-5, 10, 12-14 -  has Jesus telling us to become like little children.

Children hear English coming into their ears and English comes out their mouths. So too Chinese – so too Russian and Arabic.

We are formed by our environment - our surroundings - the atmosphere we breathe in - each moment.

Children hear love coming into their ears – and the outcome is love.

Movies in, movies out.  I keep chewing on that scene in the movie, 42 – the life of Jackie Robinson – when the little kid goes out to the game to see this new player on the national scene – he goes out with excitement – and then he hears his father screaming “Nigger” at Jackie Robinson. It shocks the kid – a possible hero is crucified on the infield at Crosley Field, in Cincinnati. And then the kid - in imitation of his dad, also yells out, “Nigger”.

We become what we eat; we become what we hear; we become our parents; we become our teachers and out TV personalities.

Movies move us. News nudge us. We become what we see, and hear and touch.

Listen to people and you’ll hear reruns of the news.

THE MASS

So we get the Mass – that’s why we’re here. We’re  here to hear. We’re here to eat. We’re here for communion with each other and with the Lord. We’re here to eat. We’re here to digest. We’re here to chew. We’re here to become one with Christ and the Body of Christ.

So at each Mass we hear words and they become us. We eat bread and drink wine and they become us.

We talk to ourselves about what we hear at Mass and at Mass we talk to ourselves about what we heard last night – or today – all being digested in the belly of our minds – as our belly is still digesting food from our tables.

So we get the description of the mass as a meal  - with two tables – the table of the word and the table of the Eucharist.  We get that because we talk and listen to each other at tables – as we eat our Cheerios or our meatloaf, eat our bread and drink our water or wine.

 Even those who eat alone – sometimes have a book or a newspaper or a magazine in front of them – or the TV or radio in the background.

We’re always eating. We’re always eating two things: food and words.

CONCLUSION

So we get today’s first reading – about Ezekiel eating the scroll. So we get Jesus’ words about becoming little children. How becoming is that. And we get Jesus ending words in today’s gospel – that all are to be welcomed and celebrated at Mass – the Mass of humanity – as well as the 100th sheep.

As priest if I have digested what I hear grandparents and parents saying – what’s eating them up – is their worry about their lost sheep – who have left the flock.

And what eats God up – It’s the same message. Hear again the last sentence in today’s gospel: What eats God up is: “Just so, it is no part of your heavenly Father’s plan that a single one of these little ones shall ever come to grief.” Amen.

OOOOOOO

Picture on top: Pat Doherty, Plate of Donuts