THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost 28 August 2011

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

In today’s gospel we witness a man who was cured by Jesus and now “speaks right.” This is a very necessary thing for us to consider. Speaking rightly involves much more than vocalizing intelligible sounds. We must also consider that we need to speak only that which is true and good.

Speech is a most wonderful gift from God. Of all of His creation we are the only ones granted this blessing. The animals have no way of communicating vocally their inner desires and thoughts. The angels communicate purely with thought. Men have been commissioned by God to speak of Him to all of creation, and to be the voice of all the inarticulate creatures in praising and glorifying Him. 

In this lofty position as the head of the creatures of this earth and commissioned by God to praise Him on their behalf, we must consider how we use this gift and office. 

Speech is too precious a gift to waste upon falsehoods, vulgarity, and all manner of verbal perversity. The nobility of this gift demands a greater accounting before God. The tongue is like a two edge sword. More people slay themselves with their own tongues than they do others. In their lies, calumnies, slanders, etc. we find that the evil they project outward upon others falls principally upon themselves.

Our Lord tells us that it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles him, but rather that which comes out from his mouth. It is the evil that is in his heart that he spreads with the tongue that creates the most evil. We can readily see the evil that slander and calumny produce in society, but what we often fail to observe is the destruction of the individual’s soul. 

In lashing out with evil intent and verbally doing harm to others, it is principally oneself that is wounded. The damage that we can do here upon earth is minimal compared to the damage that is eternal. While with our tongues we can do tremendous damage here on earth, our tongues can do little harm to the eternal souls of those who have come under our attack. The damage that does occur in souls and affects their eternal happiness comes to the one speaking evil not the one spoken about. In the desire to destroy here upon earth we only end up destroying our eternal happiness.

This tremendous gift that God has given us for His honor and glory is too often to our shame used to destroy that which God loves and seeks to save. It is bad enough for us to entertain such evil thoughts or suggestions, but the matter becomes progressively worse once we begin to verbalize them. Once a word has escaped our lips it can never be taken back. 

Our words can be for the edification and salvation of ourselves and our fellow men or they can be scandalous and destructive of life here on earth and therefore for our own lives in eternity. The evil example that our words offer to others may entice them to similar or even greater evils. For their sins too the scandalizer shall be held accountable. We can give the example of virtue and goodness with our speech or we can give the example of evil. The choice is in our own hands. Let us consciously strive to be an example of goodness and holiness to others and in this way we likewise will have a share in their goodness.

It is necessary that there should be scandals in the world so that the truth will be brought forward, but it is dreadful for the one who is the source of those scandals. Our Lord tells us that it would have been better for that man had he never been born. Let us learn from this deaf man to guard our speech so that when we open our mouths it will always be for the greater honor and glory of God. In this manner we will not have to fear being slain by our own tongues on judgment day.