The strange story of Ezekiel eating the scroll with God's words may seem to be too remote from us and make us wonder how it could be the Word of God.

Let us take to heart today's Responsorial Psalm and learn to take Ezekiel's story as a parable. Secondly, let us realize that our languages have developed an extremely useful set of abstract notions which were, indeed, already available to the Biblical writers though they could only express them in very concrete forms: interior operations and intentions of the heart and mind as well as many similar human experiences were expressed as physical acts. (In Genesis, God's harmonious relationship with humanity was expressed as an evening walk in the garden).

So let us translate the eating of the scroll as meaning interiorizing God's word, appropriating and making it our own. The scroll was "as sweet as honey" in Ezekiel's mouth. Literally and physically, there is no way a scroll, whether of paper or parchment, could be sweet to the physical taste. But familiarity with the word of God and its wisdom and enlightenment will give us an experience that we can metaphorically and reasonably describe as "sweet": "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!" (Psalm 34[33]:8).