19 February 2022
Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
You will protect us, Lord.
James does not mince words today. How we speak and what we say ought to be given the greatest attention in our lives. This could be the sole object of our prayer today: how do I use my words, where do they build people up, and where do they cut them down?
During the worst of COVID pandemic, Pope Francis called the church to a reflection upon other pandemics that were going on and he explicitly mentioned the pandemic of gossip. Francis’ point was that gossip was a deadly reality in the human experience and can cause ‘fires to blaze’ – in the words of James – in our homes, our churches, and our places of work. James calls our tongues ‘restless evils’ which is so often true.
But Augustine tells us that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. Perhaps, the same is true for our tongues. The more our mouths rest in God’s word, and in the silence of prayer, they more than can be purified to be a fire that warms others without destroying things.
The week began with the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet whose tongue and mouth were purified by God’s word in anticipation of his mission and call as a prophet. During the middle of the week James reminded us to “be quick to hear and slow to speak.” Today, we can put it all together, in the silence of my hearing, my tongue can be purified so that it is a tool for good. Let us meditate upon God’s word today asking for how our ways of speech can be purified so that we might be better doers of God’s word in the world.