Good day dear friends.
Here is our study guide for today: Tuesday: Leviticus 16, 17, 18What ties do you see between the instructions for the Day of Atonement and the prohibitions that follow against the eating and/or drinking of blood?
The teaching is plain. The blood of an animal, God says, is its life. To kill an animal as an atonement for sin means the animal carries sin in it and to eat its blood is to eat sin. God further states in the readings that one should just not eat blood. Growing up and even in recent times, cabrito en sangre was a delicacy for some of my relatives. For those who don't know Spanish, learn. But I'll help you this time: Cabrito means goat. En Sangre means in blood. Therefore, cabrito en sangre means goat in blood or in its own blood. And that's the way it was cooked. I have to confess I never felt tempted to try it and to this day I have not. I have to confess that I do love barbecued goat or whatever it is they butcher and put in the windows of cabrito restaurants in Reynosa and Monterrey, Mexico. Cabrito guisado is not to my liking, which is like carne guisada, made with a flour-based gravy.
The teaching from today's reading is as much a lesson in hygiene as it is in spirituality. To eat the blood of an animal in those days was not considered clean. And to have eaten one killed to take away one's sins was also not considered clean. However, it is interesting to know that in Holy Communion, the representation of Christ's blood as a memorial to what He paid for us, does allow us to drink the cup in remembrance of all He did for us; to receive God's love for us.
Jesus would also say it is not what goes into our mouths but out of them, that makes us unclean.
How are you living? Are words of life, that build up, and help, coming out of your mouth? Or are you making yourself unclean by negativity or criticism and anger?
PRAYER: GOD of life and love, make me clean. Cleanse my heart and mind so that my mouth will sing Your praises. Use my mouth to build up today. Help me to share a kind word with someone who needs one. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
Here is our study guide for today: Tuesday: Leviticus 16, 17, 18What ties do you see between the instructions for the Day of Atonement and the prohibitions that follow against the eating and/or drinking of blood?
The teaching is plain. The blood of an animal, God says, is its life. To kill an animal as an atonement for sin means the animal carries sin in it and to eat its blood is to eat sin. God further states in the readings that one should just not eat blood. Growing up and even in recent times, cabrito en sangre was a delicacy for some of my relatives. For those who don't know Spanish, learn. But I'll help you this time: Cabrito means goat. En Sangre means in blood. Therefore, cabrito en sangre means goat in blood or in its own blood. And that's the way it was cooked. I have to confess I never felt tempted to try it and to this day I have not. I have to confess that I do love barbecued goat or whatever it is they butcher and put in the windows of cabrito restaurants in Reynosa and Monterrey, Mexico. Cabrito guisado is not to my liking, which is like carne guisada, made with a flour-based gravy.
The teaching from today's reading is as much a lesson in hygiene as it is in spirituality. To eat the blood of an animal in those days was not considered clean. And to have eaten one killed to take away one's sins was also not considered clean. However, it is interesting to know that in Holy Communion, the representation of Christ's blood as a memorial to what He paid for us, does allow us to drink the cup in remembrance of all He did for us; to receive God's love for us.
Jesus would also say it is not what goes into our mouths but out of them, that makes us unclean.
How are you living? Are words of life, that build up, and help, coming out of your mouth? Or are you making yourself unclean by negativity or criticism and anger?
PRAYER: GOD of life and love, make me clean. Cleanse my heart and mind so that my mouth will sing Your praises. Use my mouth to build up today. Help me to share a kind word with someone who needs one. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
