Words of Life

Yesterday, during Mass, our dean of students gave a very great homily on how the words of Christ give life in the readings and how we can bring life with our words. In the Gospel, the words of Christ bring life into the lifeless son of the widow. Through Christ, we have that ability to bring life into each other and support each other with our words.

I reflected quite a bit yesterday about the use of words and what the Bible has to tell us about them. One of my favorite verses from Sirach tells us "The blow of a whip raises a welt, but a blow of the tongue crushes the bones" (Sirach 28:17). We need to reflect on how we use our tongues. Cutting speech can be a grave danger to charity. St. Matthew warns us that even if it is said sarcastically there is danger in using words beyond their meaning "Let what you say mean simply 'Yes' or 'No;' anything more than this comes from evil" (Matthew 5:37). Another translation says let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. So even if hurt isn't intended with our words, saying the statement sarcastically is still not living according to the calling we have received in Christ. Christ wants our words to have meaning and sarcasm ruins the integrity of our speech.

The reading from yesterday doesn't just challenge us to not use harsh language, just like Chapter 5 of Matthew, Christ ups the ante from the Old Testament (Sirach). No, we are called to work toward the glory of God with our speech. In the confiteor, we admit that we sin from what we have not done. How many opportunities come daily for us to bring life by our speech and we settle for less? I know of many times where I could have affirmed one of my brothers and decided to simply joke around and maybe tease him instead (my tongue, unfortunately can be quite sharp). Just because no harm came from the interaction, does not leave me faultless. Christ wanted to come into that situation and did not receive an invitation. God was not glorified in that interaction even if He wasn't blasphemed. That alone is falling short of the mark or target which is the original definition of the word sin. The bar is set high, but think of the joy that would come from rising to Christ's challenge with our speech and think of the life we could bring into this world through something as simple as our speech!!!