Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
After listening to today’s readings, one is struck by the theme of tongues, mouths, and speech. In today’s first reading, St. James warns us to watch our tongues. Here, James uses “tongue” to refer to “speech” and even more specifically, “teaching.” Indeed, he warns at the outset that not “Not many of you should become teachers” (Jas 3:1) because of our capacity to fall short with our tongues. James was deeply concerned about the authenticity of Christian teaching in the early Church. In today’s Psalm we ask, “May the LORD destroy all smooth lips, every boastful tongue” (Ps 12:4). Here, “smooth” is used in the sense of deceitful – as we might use “slick” today. We are clued in further to the reasons for this prayer when the psalm writer tells us that those who are good with their tongues are deeply tempted to consider themselves their own lord; they have no need for God (Ps 12:5).
In the gospel, we hear the familiar story of the Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah, who appear next to the transfigured Jesus, were the greatest of Israel’s prophets. Moses was the first and Elijah was expected to return as the forerunner to the Messiah (see Mk 9:11-13). The mouth and the tongue were most important to prophets, which is why throughout the Old Testament, we see God performing something to the mouth of the prophet when He calls him (for example, Isaiah’s mouth was touched by a burning ember after he protested his “unclean lips” Is 6:3-7). We know further that Moses initially refused to be God’s prophet because of a type of speech impediment (Exodus 4:10). In contrast to those described in the Psalm, we see that both are humble men.
What are we to make of all of this? Well, first we can say that the tongue and one’s speech held such a place of primacy in the biblical culture because the culture was much more orally based than our own. But further, isn’t there still something unique about speech that we still notice today? There is an intimacy to sharing speech that isn’t present when we communicate in other ways. When we speak a word, we cannot take it back in the same way that we could delete a sentence in a word processor, or even burn something that we have written down. Theologically, the Church has privileged the proclamation of the Scriptures during Mass – God is present in a special way when the readings are spoken aloud.
It is often through what rolls off of our tongues that others come to see what it is that truly rests within us. The tongue, as James tells us “is…a fire” that can set the world ablaze (Jas 3:5-6). Last Sunday, we celebrated the feast of Pentecost and we heard about tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles’ heads, enabling them to speak in different languages, yet they could all understand each other (Acts 2:3-11). This was because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, who set the whole world ablaze through the words of the Apostles. The Apostles, the first teachers of the Church, were articulate, but not by their own merits. Like Moses and Elijah, it was God who was allowed to speak through them; their tongues became instruments for God. Let us reflect, then, upon our own tongues as instruments of God.
Let us find ways to speak that difficult word in a way that it lands appropriately for the situation – some situations may call for direct speech to the point. Others will call for a tactful, gentle address. Let us be particularly attentive today to that powerful device that is the tongue and make every effort to submit it to God’s use for His greater glory, not our own.
- Tim Gabrielli