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Tuesday, August 13, 1996

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Sts. Pontian & Hippolytus


Ezekiel 2:8—3:4
Psalm 119
Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

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"taste and see" (ps 34:9)

"Be not rebellious like this house of rebellion, but open your mouth and eat what I shall give you." —Ezekiel 2:8

Picture a baby in a high chair. No matter what the parents do, the baby refuses to eat, shutting its mouth. That is the picture of many Christians today. We Christians are spiritually anorexic. We refuse to eat what God gives us because we are stuffed with the things the world has brainwashed us into eating (see Prv 13:19). The food of the "feel-good culture," materialism and consumerism, is much more appetizing to us than God's scroll with "lamentation and wailing and woe" written all over it (Ez 2:10).

However, the Lord is commanding us to repent of our eating habits and of anorexia. He commands: "Be as eager for milk as newborn babies — pure milk of the Spirit to make you grow unto salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Pt 2:2-3). The Lord warns us: "Not on bread alone is man to live but on every utterance that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4; Dt 8:3). He commands: "Take this and eat it...this is My body" (Mt 26:26).

Eat what God puts before you, and don't take candy from strangers. "Taste and see how good the Lord is; happy the man who takes refuge in Him" (Ps 34:9).

Prayer:  Father, may I eat right.

Promise:  "How sweet to my palate are Your promises, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" —Ps 119:103

Praise:  Pontian and Hippolytus forgave their bitter enemies — each other.

Reference:  (For expanded teaching on this topic, order our book, Living In Reality.)

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Robert J. Buschmiller, January 29, 1996


Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 5, 1996