UNDIVIDED ATTENTION

How much of our food do we actually absorb? In average, our bodies absorb only 40-60 percent of the nutrients of the food we take. There is a couple of factors behind this, such as how well you chew your food, the way the food is prepared (whether cooked or uncooked), the health of our organs, active lifestyle, etc. But one surprising factor of effective assimilation of nutrients into our bodies is food combining. Proper food combining renders our digestive system more effective. Poor food combining, however, causes gas (kabag), inflammation, upset stomach, etc. (di natunawan). A starchy food (like bread) should not be combined with proteins in the same meal. They require different enzymes for digestion. Starchy food needs alkaline while the stomach is predominantly acidic. Thus with alkaline and acid, the stomach is neutralized and may find it difficult to digest starch and protein all at the same time. One good example is the melon. You cannot mix melon with other food lest you risk having a stomach ache. It is recommended to eat one type of food at a time that may require the same digestive enzymes. Thus our digestive system can focus on one food at a time.             

In the Gospel (Jn 6:44-51), Jesus presents Himself as the Bread of Life. We often receive Him in the mass through His words proclaimed, and in the Eucharist, we receive during communion. But have we fully absorbed this Bread of Life? It promises endless joy and eternal life. Have we fully assimilating His teaching and commandments in our life? No! After taking the Lord in our life, we still long for other things that may provide us joy. We keep sinning and transgressing God. We still seek immortality through other stuff. We fail to absorb the bread of life and the values it offers us because we have combined it with other things. We have not really understood the rituals we perform; the sacraments we receive. Thus, their efficacies seem to be not complete. We may be reading the scriptures but not understand it fully. Thus, we are not moved by it to commit ourselves to it. We may not be fully nourished by it for we do not fully understand it. We lose focus on receiving the Lord in our lives, and consequently, we have not fully received Him in our life. If only we understand the scriptures and appreciate the graces we receive from the Lord, we can cry out, together with all the earth, to God with joy.

In the Acts of the Apostles (8:26-40), a eunuch desired to understand the Word of God. And he sought instructions from Philip. "How can I (understand), unless someone instructs me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. The eunuch took time and sat down, to focus and listen intently as Philip explained the word of God. The eunuch was so moved by what he understood, so much so that the instance he saw water, he begged to be baptized. The word of God was assimilated in his life abundantly.

We shall all be taught by God (cf. Jn 6:44-51). But have we given our undivided attention to Him that we may understand Him? Or have we poorly combined the Bread of Life with other food that only poisons us?