Homily for 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

March 3, 2019

Sir 27: 4-7
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

“A man’s speech discloses the bent of his mind” (Sir 27: 6).

How many times have you thought to yourself—even said out loud—“Me and my big, fat mouth!”  For myself, I can’t count that high, altho—thanks be to God!—I don’t need to do so quite as often now as I used to.  (A German proverb my father used to quote laments, “Too soon we get old, and too late we get smart.”)

Both Sirach and Jesus refer to the quality of a tree’s fruit as a revelation of the quality of the tree itself.  In the agricultural society of their times, everyone would understand that metaphor, and so do any of you who’ve done some gardening.  The metaphor, of course, refers to the quality of one’s moral character, of one’s relationship with God, as revealed by our actions and our words.  Jesus adds, “A good person out of a store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).  Along a similar line, St. Paul describes the fruits of the Holy Spirit as an abundance of virtues (Gal 5:22-23) in contrast to what he calls “the works of the flesh” (5:19-21).

One particular fruit in our 4 verses from Sirach today is our speech; the author mentions it 3 times in those 4 verses.  It’s a theme he returns to in his next chapter, as well (28:12-26), foreshadowing what St. James writes in his letter to 1st-century Christians, comparing our tongues to a spark that can ignite a forest fire, to the little tiller that can steer a great ship at sea, and to the reins that govern a horse’s path (3:3-5).

Me and my big, fat mouth!  How often we offend our neighbor by gossip, rash judgment, lies, angry words, insults, a careless choice of words, petty faultfinding, constant criticism.  Nowadays we don’t even need our tongues—we have Facebook, Twitter, and comment sections on news sites and blogs.  Cyberbullying is a serious problem for kids, but adults do it too.  We claim a 1st Amendment right to offend others on the basis of their politics, religious belief, race, immigration status, gender, age, orientation, grooming, and driving habits.

I haven’t even mentioned our misuse of God’s holy name in our everyday conversations.

I could go on, and you probably could contribute some thoughts too. 

Our speech may reveal a troubled heart, a soul in need of God’s healing.  But it should also reveal God.  Jesus tells us to let our light shine upon the world (Matt 5:16).  That may be thru our actions, obviously, but also thru our speech.  We use our tongues to praise God in song and word in our worship—at least we’re supposed to, but a times our church is awful quiet.  We may use our tongues to speak encouragement, comfort, reassurance to others; or to teach them to pray and to love their neighbors; or to prepare them for life’s challenges.  Think of the power of a sincere “I love you,” “Thank you,” “You’ve been very helpful,” “What a great job you’ve done!” and so on.  Our speech may be a concrete act of virtue, may reveal the love of God deeply seated in our souls.

If we fail so often in how we speak, yet is there room to change, to improve.  We begin by making an effort to convert our interior attitudes, by asking our Lord Jesus to help us to be kinder, gentler, more patient, more understanding—and then to guide our speech or at least to control our rash impulses to say the 1st dumb thing that comes into our heads.  If we need to apologize, we do that.  We keep practicing the fine art of biting our tongues, and the finer art of speaking well of others and to others.  With hard work on our part and generous grace from  God, we can master our tongues.  “Too soon we grow old, and too late we get smart.”  But it’s not too late to give our hearts—and our tongues—to our Lord Jesus.