Homily | August 11, 2026 | God’s Word Must Change You Before You Speak It | (Episode 228)

Today we hear about a very unusual moment.

God doesn't simply tell the prophet Ezekiel to read his word.

He tells him to eat it.

Open your mouth and eat this scroll.

Imagine how strange that must have sounded.

God was teaching Ezekiel something every disciple must learn.

Before you can speak God's word, you must first let God's word become part of you.

The message has to pass through your heart before it comes out of your mouth.

That's exactly what we celebrate today in Saint Clair.

Most people know that she was one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi.

She came from a wealthy and noble family.

She could have lived a life of comfort, privilege, and influence.

But instead as a young woman, she heard Francis preach the gospel and something happened.

She didn't simply admire his words, she believed them.

She didn't treat the gospel as this beautiful idea.

She allowed it to reshape her entire life.

She left everything, embraced poverty, founded what we now know the poor Claire's, and spent more than forty years living a hidden life of prayer.

That's what it means to eat the scroll.

And the gospel stops being information, becomes transformation.

There's a difference.

Many people know the gospel, but far few allow the gospel to know them.

We can quote scripture, we can study theology, listen to homilies, read spiritual books, but until God's word changes the way we think, the way we forgive, the way we love, the way we act and respond, the way we trust Him.

We have only read the scroll.

We haven't eaten it.

But then Jesus gives us another image.

He places a little child in the middle of the disciples.

The disciples are arguing about greatness.

Jesus points to littleness.

The world tells us to become important.

Jesus tells us to become humble.

The world will tell you, be noticed, be important.

Jesus tells us be childlike.

Notice he does not say child-ish, he says childlike.

A child knows how to trust.

A child knows how to receive, a child knows he cannot do everything alone.

And that's exactly who Claire was.

That's who Claire became.

Her greatness was never found in extraordinary accomplishments.

It was found in extraordinary dependence upon God.

She understood that holiness is not about making ourselves impressive.

It's about making room for Christ.

There is only one story from her life that has always moved me.

When enemy soldiers threatened her convent, Claire was gravely ill.

She had no army, no weapons.

She asked that the Blessed Sacrament be brought before her.

Holding Christ before the attackers, she prayed with complete confidence that the Lord would protect her sisters.

The attackers fled.

Whether we focus on the miracle itself or on the faith behind it, the lesson is the same.

Her confidence was never in herself.

It was always in Jesus Christ.

That's spiritual childhood.

That's humility.

That is someone who has truly eaten the scroll.

Perhaps that's the question for us today.

Do I simply read the Word of God?

Or do I allow it to read to me?

Do I hear the gospel on Sunday only to forget it on Monday?

Or do I let it shape my conversations, my priorities, my decisions, and my heart?

Every mass gives us the same pattern.

First, we're fed at the table of God's word, then we're fed at the table of the Eucharist.

God feeds us before he sends us, because he knows that we cannot give what we do not have or what we have not first received.

Saint Clair reminds us that the saints were not extraordinary because they knew more than everyone else.

No.

They were extraordinary because they allowed the gospel to become their very way of life.

May we do the same.

May we eat the word.

May we receive Christ, and then may we go out into the world as living pages of the gospel that others can read.

St.

Clair, pray for us.

Amen.