Words from the Heart
Homily for the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
“The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind” (Sirach 27:6)
At the heart of our faith is the theological truth that at the beginning of all things was a word — the Word, in fact, through whom all things were spoken into being. And in the fullness of time, that same Word took on human flesh and gave himself for our salvation. That means words matter.
Now, communication is a two-way street. For communication to occur — and I will point out that communication has the same root word as communion — a word needs to not only be spoken but also received. You need both a speaker and a hearer; a writer and a reader. Only then, when the word is both given and received, does real communication leading to communion take place. God spoke his Word to us by sending his Son into the world. We participate in this divine communication when we faithfully receive that Word. Only then are we made one with God, which is what communication and communion are all about. Our salvation is the result of divine communication. God speaks words of eternal life to us (Jn 6:68). “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus says, “but my words will never pass away” (Mt 24:35).
In light of all this, how then ought we to make use of our own words, our own capacity to communicate? What sort of speakers ought we to be? And what sort of listeners? Both the reading from Sirach as well as the gospel this Sunday remind us that the words that come out of our mouth reflect what lies in our heart. God’s words bring truth and life because that’s what God is. So what do our words say about us? “It is from the fullness of the heart a person speaks,” Jesus says, echoing the same truth expressed in Sirach that, “one's speech discloses the bent of one’s mind.”
Like many of you, I was told growing up that “sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you.” But — also like many of you, I am sure — I have found that not to be true. Words can hurt. In fact, most of us I imagine have been hurt far more often by words than by sticks or stones. Why is that? A word is just a sound, after all. Just a breath. A few syllables spoken and then gone. Why should words affect us so much? It’s because deep down we know that words are more than sound and breath. They are more than ink on a page or pixels on a screen. Words are symbols; they are spoken or written symbols. And symbols have meaning. They point beyond themselves to something greater. Every word from our mouth is a sign that points to something in our heart.
This is a marvelous thing, if you think about it. What we might call the interior life, the content of our hearts and minds, is ordinarily private. It’s hidden. But through words, I can share a part of myself with you, and you can receive it. This makes it possible for us to be of one mind and heart — for us to be in communion, in other words. This ability to communicate is a great gift from God. And like any great gift, it is a great sin to misuse it.
This is why scripture contains admonitions for us to guard our tongues. Psalm 141 says, “Set a guard, Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps 141:3). In the New Testament, James speaks harshly of the human tongue, saying, “from the same mouth come blessing and cursing, but this ought not to be so” (Jas 3:10). And Jesus himself teaches that we will have to give account for every careless word we’ve spoken (Mt 12:36). When I think of all my careless words, that is truly a sobering thought.
Why would God care so much about even our idle chatter? We might be tempted to presume that he doesn’t, but Jesus clearly tells us otherwise. So why does it matter so much? I suggest that it’s because our ability to communicate comes from God, and so should be used for God's purposes. St. Peter says that we are to “put [our] gifts at the service of one another” (1 Pt 4:10), and adds, “the one who speaks is to deliver God’s message” (1 Pt 4:11). God is Truth, Goodness and Beauty, and we are made for communion with God. So God gave us minds to know the truth, hearts to desire the good, and souls to contemplate the beautiful. When our words communicate things that are true, good and beautiful we build each other up by communicating godly things to one another. But when we communicate things that are false, evil or ugly, we harm each other.
There are many ways our words can cause harm. The Catechism warns us against sins such as calumny and detraction. These are forms of what we might call gossip. Calumny is when we spread false information about someone in a way that harms their reputation, and detraction is when we share true information about someone’s faults without a just reason for doing so. The Church teaches that all people have a natural right to a good reputation and to respect. Contrary to the wisdom of the world, those things don’t have to be earned. They are a given. The Catechism calls them “a social witness to human dignity” (CCC 2479). When we use our words to speak ill of one another, that is an offense against human dignity.
It also offends dignity to use our words in a way that encourages or makes light of sinful behavior. St. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Ephesians: “Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving” (Eph 5:3-4). Or in his letter to the Philippians where he writes, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).
Which brings me to my next point: what kind of listeners are we to be? In other words, how should we, as Christians, receive the words of others? In a perfect world, this wouldn’t be an issue, because all the words spoken would be charitable and just. But we don’t live in a perfect world. We are pilgrims in a fallen world, working our way toward heaven. But while we are on that journey, as St. Augustine reminds us, we must not only do good but endure evil. But we must endure it with patience and charity. This means that our default position should always be to assume the good intentions of others.
The Catechism instructs us that we should “interpret, as far as possible, our neighbor’s thoughts, words and deeds in a favorable way” (CCC 2478). Quoting from St. Ignatius of Loyola, it says, “Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s statement than to condemn it.” What this means for us in practical terms is that we should try to interpret other people’s words and actions in the best light possible, assuming their good intentions. First, because that’s usually going to be true. Even when people say dumb things, they usually have good intentions. People are often inconsiderate but they rarely are trying to hurt us. But more importantly, assuming good intentions is just the charitable thing to do.
Even when it seems impossible to interpret people’s words favorably, charity still calls for us to give others the benefit of the doubt. I remember as a grad student having an issue with my thesis advisor. He was growing more and more harsh in his criticisms of my work, and eventually it got downright insulting. It got so bad that I forwarded all his comments to the program director and when I called him up to ask, “What am I doing wrong?” he just sighed and said, “I’m sorry. There are certain things going on in this professor’s life that would make him predisposed to act this way. It’s not your fault, and I’m sorry this happened. We’ll work on getting you a new advisor.” Not only did I feel better knowing that this person’s negative words were not really about me, but now I was able to have sympathy with him and even pray for whatever his situation was. This ought to be our default attitude whenever we encounter harsh words from others. We never know what situations others might be going through. As Jesus reminded us in last Sunday’s gospel reading, we ought to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us.
And if we need further reason to be charitable, we only need to think about how often we’ve been careless or harsh with our own words. This is the point of Jesus’ warning to remove the beam from your own eye before you point out the splinter in someone else’s. None of us have kept a perfect guard over our mouth, so it is unjust for us to condemn others for their loose lips. The Book of Ecclesiastes says, “Do not give heed to every word that is spoken lest you hear your servant speaking ill of you, for you know in your heart that you have many times spoken ill of others” (Ecc 7:21-22). God will forgive us for our rash words if we forgive the rash words of others.
So we have a responsibility both to use our words charitably and to receive the words of others charitably. And I will end with this observation: nowhere in the Catechism does it make an exception when it comes to politicians, bishops, and other public figures. Sometimes we think public figures are fair game for any and all kinds of criticism, but the sins of calumny and detraction still apply. This is especially true when it comes to social media, where for some reason we seem to consider our words less carefully even though they will have a much larger and longer-lasting reach. This is not to say that public figures are above criticism — in fact, sometimes we absolutely must criticize them. But, just as when we have to admonish people in our personal lives, our words should always reflect the truth and be spoken with charity and compassion.
In his Lenten message for this year, Pope Francis asks us to examine our lives to see how well we walk with others, listen to them, and welcome them with concrete gestures into our communities. In this spirit, let us enter into the Lenten season willing to fast from harsh words and idle gossip, and repent of those attitudes of pride and resentment that give rise to them. May we instead use our words to foster communion, especially the blessed communion that comes from sharing the goodness, truth, and beauty we receive from the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ our Lord.