8th Sunday of Ordinary Time
March 3, 2019
Sir 27: 4-7Nativity, 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.
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