Eat This Scroll

Today's 1st reading is from the book of Ezekiel ~  

He said to me: Son of man, eat what is before you; eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.Son of man, he then said to me, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

He said: Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

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I just love Ezekiel! He is a prophet with the talent of painting pictures, which as a visual learner I find extremely helpful.

Image from Divine Child in the Detroit suburbs

I believe that the prophet Ezekiel may be the first to physically "eat the Word of God" in the Hebrew scriptures. In so doing, he incorporates the scroll of God into his very being and so is able to to spill it forth to those to whom he is sent.

In the book of Deuteronomy 8:3 it says:

He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna,c a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone* that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

Jesus alludes to this verse at his Temptation (see Matthew 4:4)

Often, God's gifts through Our Lord Jesus are prefigured in the Hebrew Scripture. 

Before Vatican II, our biblical scholars would study these as "types" echoed in Scripture. The old Catholic Encyclopedia from 1912 has a wonderful exposition on this fruitful means of tying together the Old and the New Covenants for those interested; there are also more moden studies which incorporate Dei Verbum and later teachings.