Did
you get a little lost in those readings? I did. They kind of bounced
from one thing to another with little or no apparent coherence or logic.
We had shaking sieves; we had pottery, and furnaces, splinters and
wooden beams, figs and thorn bushes, grapes and brambles, good trees and
bad trees, rotten fruit, good fruit.
To be
honest, I found myself wondering how I was ever going to get a homily
out of all that! It’s not that there wasn’t enough there; the problem
was there was too much: too many images – strong but disconnected images
– along with wise and pithy sayings that seemed to come out of nowhere
with very little reference one to the other. Don’t get me wrong: I know
it’s all the inspired Word of God but ‘inspired’ and ‘inspiring’ aren’t
necessarily the same thing! So, if you are less than inspired by what I
have to say this morning, I’m hoping you will cut me some slack!
I did
glean one gem from the reading from the Book of Sirach (one of the
wisdom books from the Jewish scriptures). It’s this: people who speak
for a living and whose lives depend to some degree on the words they
speak (priests, political leaders, and politicians come to mind, among
others), ought to watch what they say. Sirach makes a strong case for
measured, forthright, honest speech. Falsehoods, misrepresentations, or
downright lies will not escape notice, Sirach says; they will stick out
like husks of grain when a baker shakes flour in a sieve. To quote the
passage, “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults
when one speaks. One’s speech discloses the bent of one’s mind. Praise
no one before he speaks, for it is in speaking that people are tested.”
That got me to
thinking about how much our speech, our discourse, our communications
have gotten debased in recent times - so much so that we hardly expect
to get the truth – or even something close to truth - any more, do
we? Think of so much we get from our political leaders and politicians,
think of so much that is endlessly churned out by the media. Too often,
a lot of what we hear bears little or no resemblance to the truth. Too
often we get blatant disinformation, pure fabrication, so-called fake
facts. It’s a sad development, isn’t it, when we can no longer expect to
get the truth from people we should be able to trust? We should be able
not only to expect the truth, we should demand it - from political
leaders, from the media, from journalists, from everyone, including
priests and, yes, including ourselves!
So, there is one takeaway from some seemingly random verses from the
Book of Sirach. Speech is sacred. It should be considered and measured,
authentic, and worthy of our trust. Above all, it should be true.
There
was more wisdom to be gleaned in the passage from Luke’s gospel. Jesus
says that a blind person cannot lead another blind person. They’re
unlikely to get where they’re going. That’s obvious enough. What’s not
so obvious is why Jesus said it. It’s pretty clear he was pointing to
the religious leaders with whom he was often in conflict. They were
supposed to be guides to the blind, lights to those in darkness, but too
often were anything but. And he was almost certainly singling them out
when he spoke almost amusingly about eyes with big wooden beams in them
and eyes with tiny splinters. People with major blind spots ought to
clear those up before pointing out the minor blind spots of others. Good
advice for religious leaders of any time, including ours, wouldn’t you
agree? Words I must take to heart myself!
My friends, I’m going to be content this morning that, from a blur of
images and a slew of seemingly disconnected sayings, there was some
wisdom to be gleaned: like watch what you say, care about what you say.
Words are sacred, and so are the people to whom they are spoken. And
words should always be in the service of truth: they should build up,
not tear down, bring light, not darkness, hope, not fear. The good order
of human society depends on it. And if and when words are used to
deceive, obfuscate or mislead, should we be surprised when our social
fabric begins to unravel and we are less and less able to talk to one
another, to trust one another, to respect one another, to believe one
another?
Maybe
there was more in those readings than I first thought! But I think I’ll
stop here with the thought that we have much to ponder, much to reflect
on, much to pray about. Happily, Lent is fast upon us. There will be
plenty of time for pondering, for reflecting, for prayer. And, given the
state of our world and our nation at the moment, those are the things we
really need. We really do!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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