I had lunch with a wonderful friend I hadn’t seen in quite awhile. Catching up with old friends is a delight. As she talked about all that’s been happening in her life and as I listened to her respond to my stories, “I was hanging in her words. ” The People in the gospel were “hanging” on the words of Jesus. Like my friend, his words were comforting, challenging and life giving.

In the book of Revelation, john “eats” the scroll that contains words of prophecy and these words tasted as sweet as “honey.” Yes, the words we use may not always be comforting and soothing ; sometimes the message might be difficult to swallow at first. Sometimes the words might be sweet when we first hear them but after giving them some thought , a bitterness may develop in our stomachs.
This is exactly what happened to john after eating the scroll : at first, the words tasted sweet but eventually turned sour in his stomach. He realized the words were a call to reform and change, never easy , and often give indigestion!!!
We need to tell people what they need to hear not necessarily what they want to hear. The indigestion always goes away and all that we remember is the sweetness of eating Words of life.

Many wonderful and transforming things can happen over a bowl of oatmeal meal and some coffee. Buen camino. Padre.