From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts:
The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had;
so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.
Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.
Sirach 27:6-7 from Sunday’s first reading
“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the 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 6:43-45 from Sunday’s Gospel reading
Lent begins this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, our preparation time for Easter some 40 days away. When I was a child, Episcopalians such as we were would attempt some penance for those 40 days, not infrequently giving up candy for the duration.
Now I’m Catholic but of an age when fasting rules are relaxed, especially for the elderly and ill, but the need for penance does not simply fade away. Today’s readings turn us from thoughts of restraint over what we put into our mouths, to restraint from what we let come out: bitter words, thoughtless words, recriminating words, even lying words. Words of anger, contempt, and condemnation. In a word, Twitter! Or as someone once referred to it, “BLURT!”
The internet is one obvious place to begin with penitential restraint, but let’s begin a half-step earlier with our own thoughts and all those things we whisper under our breath. As the older wisdom of Judaism knew, what we speak tests what kind of person we are, what is “the bent of one’s mind.” (Sirach, above) And Jesus confirms this: “from the fulness of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Lots of wounding, unfair, even cursing words begin to surge toward outward speech as we go through any ordinary day. Certainly, enough to give us pause about just how far we have grown in our Christlikeness so far in our pilgrimage back to our Father in heaven. Let’s try for 40 days to get better at spotting these things as they arise, so that we can stop polluting the air (waves) with them. Take a moment each time this happens to reflect on how we might offer something constructive instead, or be silent and turn inward to prayer to our Lord.
For further reflection:
Check that last line taken from Sirach:
Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.
“Tested” not “tempted” for God tempts no one. But He does “test” us in the sense that He allows situations or guides us into situations that reveal our hearts. Nothing is more important than the answer to the question–“Is my heart set on God first?” God is our source, ultimately, and we will, ultimately, return to Him. Everything in between has to be handled with that in mind.
Of course, there is one who tempts. That one wants us to join him in rejection of the Father who loves us. The various “tests” we are presented with indicate the direction we are headed. If we are headed in the wrong direction, it is a great mercy to find that out… .