Sweets and a sour stomach

Good News Reflection
Friday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time
November 19, 2010

Today's Readings:
Rev 10:8-11
Ps 119:14,24,72,103,111,131
Luke 19:45-48
http://www.usccb.org/nab/111910.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_11_19.mp3

Sweets and a sour stomach

My husband, Ralph, is good at cooking up fun birthday cakes. When the kids were little (and our waistlines, too), he would bake the cake and then slice two layers into at least four, then plaster each together with his favorite snacks: jelly beans, chocolate chips, pudding, marshmallows, coconut, colored sugar sprinkles, and hmmmm..... I think he would've included ice cream with hot fudge if he could.

When I was pregnant with my first child (1980), my birthday came in the middle of the nauseous stage. Ralph begged me to let him bake a cake. As my stomach churned, I suggested angel food cake; it's light and airy, has no icing, and is therefore easy to digest. He agreed. Then he layered it with jelly beans, chocolate chips, pudding and – I think I know how Saint John felt when the angel told him in today's first reading, "Here, take and eat this scroll. It will taste sweet but will sour in your stomach."

Today's responsorial psalm says, "How sweet to my taste is your promise!" The Good News from God is always wonderful, but when we have to share the truth with those who will reject us, it churns in our stomachs. Jesus spoke the truth in today's Gospel reading, and the chief priests, leaders and scribes plotted to destroy him. Who can stomach that kind of rejection and then do it again?

God told John, "You must prophesy." Through our baptisms, we all share in Christ's divine role as prophet. We must prophesy! But not as a fortune teller; that is Satan's twisted warp on it. And not by nagging someone with the truth; that's casting pearls before swine. To be a prophet means to speak the truth to those who need to hear it, but only when God chooses the timing and gives us the words to speak.

We are held accountable for every word that we use or misuse. We are also held accountable for every word he asks us to utter that we do not speak when we're afraid that someone's reaction might upset our stomachs.

To be God's voice here on earth, we must first live the truth, learning it from scripture and Church teachings, letting it change our own lives, humbly going to Confession for the times we've rejected the truth. Since we can never fully grasp the truth, we continue to study, repent, and live the truth.

Secondly, we must stay in prayer to discern God's will, and thirdly, we must rely on the Holy Spirit's inspiration rather than on our personal emotions and agendas.

And when the sweet taste of his Word turns sour in our stomach, we have the satisfaction of knowing that it has united us to St. John and to Jesus.

© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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