8th Sunday Ordinary Time - Year C

Words that Reveal

We are entering the Season of Lent; let us purify our hearts examining our thoughts, words and deeds.  The words a person chooses to speak are a window through which to see and know his/her heart.  The average man speaks about 25,000 words a day and the average woman 30,000.  Armed with this statistical information, we turn now to the promptings of today’s readings and ask ourselves:  What am I saying each day with my 25,000 or 30,000 words and what are my words, saying about me? “A person’s speech discloses the bent of the mind,” says Sirach (27:4-7), “Each person speaks from the heart’s abundance”, says Jesus (Lk 6:39-45).  What am I disclosing when I speak?  What is revealed of my heart’s abundance when I open my mouth?

Do my words encourage, enlarge and edify the other or do they dampen their hopes, and tear them down?  What do my words reveal of my heart when they explode in anger at the slightest provocation?  When I choose pungent criticism over caring counsel, what am I revealing of my inner self?

When I give myself over to gossip, what does this reveal about my heart and my integrity as a believer?  According to the Talmud, “The gossiping tongue kills three, the victim of the gossip, the gossiper and the one who listens to the gossiper”.  Most of us would not gossip if we remembered to think before we speak and if we were intent upon responding rather than reacting to one another.  Unfortunately, our mouths are too frequently in motion before our minds and hearts go into gear.  In order to cultivate the habit of the pensive pause, Dr. Richard Carlson advises: breathe before you speak.  Believers in Jesus might use that pensive pause and momentary breath to allow the Spirit of God to breathe forth in them the compassionate caring and loving kindness of God.  Thus empowered and enlightened, we can disclose the best of our minds and speak from our hearts’ abundance.