Each of our readings this weekend deal very bluntly with the power of our words. 

The words we say tell us a whole lot about what’s going on in our hearts and what our character is like.

Our first reading from the book of Sirach told us that “the fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.” The author then goes on to say that we should “praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.”

In our gospel, Jesus echoes pretty much the same exact thing, saying: “From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.” This is an essential part of what it means to be a good tree — “a good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit” — “Every tree is known by its own fruit.”

From all this, it is perfectly clear: The way that we speak reveals our heart.

Because words are powerful.

Words can heal. They can deescalate and unite. They can encourage and build up! They even have power to create!!! In the beginning, God spoke, and everything came into being: “Let there be Light,” He said… and then there was light.

But we also know that words have the power to destroy. They can make us feel awful. They can turn the whole world upside-down. They can expose us and infuriate us. They can ruin relationships. They can wreck reputations. They can spark wars. 

Words can be utterly devastating.

Given how serious and how powerful words really are, for both good and evil — I thought it would be helpful today to review the most common “sins of the tongue” that we need to be actively avoiding. And thankfully, Monsignor Charles Pope did most of the heavy lifting for me, because he wrote an article a few years back that outlined the most common ways that we misuse the great power of our words.

As I share these various sins, consider them in your own heart. Examine your own conscience, and ask yourself: “Have I given in to any of these?”

Because the truth is… we all have. None of us are sinless in this regard. So let us, as Jesus told us in our Gospel, notice first the wooden beam in our own eye first, before pointing out the splinter in our neighbor’s!

So — the first, and perhaps most obvious sin of the tongue is Lying. 

Lying directly breaks the eight commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Lying is when we speak falsehoods with the express motivation of misleading others. Maybe we try to give wrong information that makes us look a little bit better… or makes somebody else look a little bit worse. Maybe we pretend not to know something really important to the issue at hand when we actually do know something! Lying can take any number of forms… but the antidote is ALWAYS telling the Truth, even when it’s costly. Lying only gets us more and more enmeshed and tangled. It only gets us more stuck — but telling the Truth sets us free.

The next sin of the tongue is Backbiting. Backbiting is when we talk about others behind their backs, harming their good name through what is called ‘detraction.’ Often enough, the backbiter really only has to say true things, or at least partially true things — and therein lies the deepest pain that the backbiter can inflict! A backbiter might even feel sort of justified — “Well, I’m only telling the TRUTH!!!” — but he or she isn’t sharing that information to build someone up… They’re using that information to tear them down.

This sort of behavior is connected to our next common sin of the tongue, which is indiscretion. Indiscretion involves the spreading of confidential, unnecessary or hurtful information about others. One of the gravest acts of indiscretion would be for a priest to share something that he hears in the confessional…breaking the ‘seal of the confessional.’ This would be so serious, in fact, that any priest who dares do that — he would be defrocked and excommunicated! That’s how serious we take the privacy of the confessional!

The next sin of the tongue is Flattery. 

And at first that doesn’t seem like such a bad thing at all — isn’t it good to praise someone? Well of course it is!

But sinful flattery is when we exaggerate all the good qualities in others just so we can use those people and manipulate them for our own advantage. Why are we complimenting people? Why are we choosing to go talk to this person, rather than the other person? Could we doing so only for some sort of selfish gain?

The next sin of the tongue is boasting — Now, St. Paul tells us that we should “boast in the Lord” and “BOAST in the Cross of Jesus.” But what I’m talking about here is something different from being confident about what we should be confident about. Sinful boasting is when we’re overly certain or when we are asserting ourselves too strongly. Drawing too much attention to oneself. Nobody likes a show-off, right?

There is also the problem of oversharing — which I think is a big one in our social media age. Oversharing is when we say way too much. We might divulge too much about our personal lives, our struggles and our wounds with the wrong people, or just go on and on and on, complaining or griping… selfishly wasting everybody’s time, enjoying whatever audience is willing to listen. Perhaps this is one of the most common sin of the tongue? And perhaps you think I’m guilty of it when I go on and on up here at the pulpit?!

Well if you wanted to say that, or you HAVE said this — then you might be guilty of another sin of the tongue called RASHNESS — Rashness is when we say something too quickly — usually some form of judgment — and  usually without having all of the necessary information. We’re familiar with this particular sin every time we pull up Facebook — We see everyone rushing to share their rash, immediate opinions — without first gathering all the necessary context and all of the nuance that’s there! This results in a whole lot of fake-news and total confusion!

It also almost inevitably leads to our next sin of the tongue, which is quarreling.

Quarreling is different from arguing. Arguing is kind of a lost art that we badly need to recover, I think. Arguing just means making a well-reasoned case for one’s beliefs and position… and then defending those beliefs with charity AND passion. 

Quarreling is different, however. Quarreling is when we jab at one another, or tear at one another in an overly opinionated way, attacking others personally, and provoking unnecessary division.

When quarreling escalates, there is then the temptation to commit our next sin of the tongue, which is cursing. Cursing is when we wish harm upon others, or when we speak harshly or severely to one another, using vulgar language or even slurs.

And last but certainly not least, our final sin of the tongue is silence — And we might think… “Wait… what? Isn’t silence a good thing?” After all you need silence in order to pray… in order to hear God’s voice. Silence is so rare! So precious! “How can silence be a sin of the tongue? Especially since it involves not saying anything at all?”

Well, silence can become sinful when we really should say something, but choose not to. This is what we call a sin of omission. We are well aware of the fact that we can commit sins of commission, but there’s also such things as sins of omission… when we deliberately decide NOT to say or do what we know is the right thing to do. 

Maybe we’ve run into the situation where someone insults or denigrates the Catholic Church at work or at school. Do we remain silent? Maybe, rather than starting a fight, or being internally resentful — what if we offer a gentle, positive word instead? Maybe we say something like: “Actually, I’m a practicing Catholic, and I love my Church. I’m fed by Jesus in the Eucharist. My priest offers me forgiveness of my sins in the sacrament of Penance. I don’t know where I’d be without the Church!” 

When we fail to speak up, when we don’t help people to understand why we teach what we teach, or when we choose not to boldly proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ — this, too, believe it or not, can be a sin of the tongue…

ALRIGHT….I hope that little examination of conscience was helpful! 

Remember… Words are powerful.

I am sure that every one of us here has unfortunately been hurt by somebody’s harsh or destructive words. I know when I was growing up, I was bullied a lot. And I felt like a loser because of other people’s words. It’s painful. But I’m also painfully aware of all the times I’ve been guilty of hurting people with my words as well…

As St. James says in his letter: “Every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.”

This can be really frustrating…Sometimes our words just…happen. And before you even know it, it’s out of our mouth and we can’t do anything to take those words back…

But I guess my encouragement to you is: Don’t give up! Let’s make that firm resolution to do everything for the glory of God. To use our words wisely and carefully! 

Let’s allow the Words of Jesus to define us instead! 

Because what does the Lord have to say about us? 

Does He say that you are hopeless? Does He say that you aren’t worth His time? Does he ever insult you? Does He ever lie to you? Gossip about you with the angels and saints? Does he ever curse you or accuse you?

Absolutely not!

He speaks only love and mercy over you. He speaks blessing and the fullness of Truth over you. He speaks words of exhortation… and YES… sometimes words of conviction! He’s not afraid to tell us what we really need to hear, even if we don’t like it!!! But only wants us to be GOOD TREES that bear GOOD FRUIT!!!

What do we say to that? What is our response?

I think our Psalm today gives us the best possible words to say back to the Lord who always speaks GOOD, HOLY words over us:

“Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.”

Those are by far the best possible words that could ever come out of our mouths in every situation… Words of GRATITUDE. That’s what God gave us lips and tongues for — To give THANKS!!! If our hurtful words are powerful for destruction — how much more powerful are our words of thanksgiving???

“Lord, thank you! Thank you so much! Despite everything going on. Despite the tragedies. Despite my own imperfections. — Thank You, Lord.”

Let’s pray that together: “Thank You, Lord.”

As we pray this Holy Eucharist… which means, of course… THANKSGIVING… we declare that truth together once more: “Lord, it is good to give thanks to You.”