My Obsession for Goat Meat and Bread

I had a really difficult time picking out what to eat this morning. Switching from being an impulsive eater to selecting a healthy meal in your diet is equivalent to dying on the cross of Calvary for my weight. I was quite convinced I made the wrong choice of food when I belched in mass while standing and listening to the Priest recite the prayers of the Eucharistic Liturgy as we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I could taste the burnt flavour of well-seasoned goat meat which I had eaten a bit over an hour ago, with a portion of well cooked beans and unripe plantain in stew. Just before I knelt down to chant the “Sanctus”, I started to question my level of piety for the Most Holy Sacrament. “Why did I have to eat so close to the moment I would have to receive our Lord from the Altar? My friend do you want to contaminate the taste of this humble Bread with that of one goat that probably met the butcher’s knife because of how stubborn it was?” I couldn’t help but laugh in my heart for judging the poor goat. These thoughts lasted all through the Sanctus as I chanted the superlative qualification the Host of Heaven eternally sings of our God: “Holy! Holy! Holy Lord! God of Host…”

I tried to swallow as much saliva as possible to wash my throat and liberate my taste buds of this delicious taste of flesh. Still it prevailed. I knelt down and could barely keep my concentration at 100% till we shared the sign of peace and started chanting the “Agnus Dei”. As soon as we began to invoke our Saviour, I realised how silly it was for me to worry about the taste of goat meat ruining the taste of bread in my mouth. With excitement, I followed my brothers and sisters in the mass to acclaim with a loud voice “Lamb of God…”. How could I have forgotten my mission to this mass? I had come to receive the Bread of Life, “for the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” [Jn VI:33]. Why was I being as shallow as the crowd at Capernaum who were only after the immortality of bread but unable to fathom that you, my Lord and Saviour, are the one true bread?

As soon as the Priest lifted the consecrated host and cantillated in those words of the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God…” [Jn I:35], I realised just how childish my worries about goat flesh were because I was about to eat something more exciting: Holy Flesh! I remember how Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat [the ancient texts literally meant “masticate/chew”] the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” [cf. Jn VI:25-59]. My journey through the beatitudes has been a spiritual exodus for me. Living the blessedness of the poor in Spirit, as fulfilling as it is, has not been easy and can get weary sometimes. But like Elijah, the Angels on the altar have urged me in my weariness to “arise and eat, because the journey is too great…” [cf. I King XIX: 5-7]. My journey might not necessarily take me forty days and forty nights like the prophet. It could probably take me more. But I know I need that spiritual food and I was convinced in that moment that as soon as the Lamb of God gets into my mouth, it would taste way better to my soul than the delicious goat meat I ate at that morning… Lol!

“Give us this day our daily bread. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one…” [Matt. VI: 11,13]