Homily:
Eight Sunday Year C
Reading
1: One’s speech and words tell us much about a person, his character, his
values, his motives and his true self. One uses a sieve or a strainer to
separate the useful and the good from what will be discarded. As the reading
says, “so too does none’s speech discloses the bent of one’s mind.” How
conscious are we of our speech? How observant, controlled and filtered is our
speech? Do we filter our thoughts before we verbalize them or do we speak
whatever we think, regardless of the consequences? This Letter of St. James
speaks of the important role our tongue has. Like the rudder of a boat or the
steering wheel of a car, the person can direct the boat or car. James says:
“the tongue is a small part but it moves great things. By our tongues we bless
God and by our tongues we speak evil of others, who have been made in the
likeness of God.
Gospel:
Jesus picks up the theme of the first reading. How easy is it for us to notice
the faults of others but be blind to our own faults! Not only do we notice the faults of others,
we verbalize them in a judgmental and condemning way. Jesus calls this
hypocrisy. He tells us to work on our own faults, clean our own closet from its
skeletons. Then if you are led by God to encourage another to deal with a
fault, do it out of love and in love.
As
we enter into Lent, what better area to work on than our thought and our
speech? What will happen to us, if we would spend Lent conscious of filtering
our negative, judgmental, critical, angry, destructive thoughts? What if we
would bring these thoughts to the Lord at the foot of the cross, before we
speak them without filter? Would we then be putting into practice the
admonition of St. Paul when we wrote: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do it
in the name of Jesus, giving praise to Go God the Father through him.” Two
things would be accomplished. We would be working on the junk within us and we
would build up in love the other person. Yes, there is a law of sin without
each of us, but there is also the grace of God to help us overcome this law of
sin, if we so choose.
Reading
2: Death is inevitable for each person. As the scripture says, there is a time
to be born and a time to die. The question is will death defeat us or will we
by the grace of God defeat death? Paul tells us that through Jesus we have been
given the victory over the second death, which is eternal alienation for God.
In
faith we know that we will live eternally. Physical death is a brief moment in
our life span. But if we die separated from God, our eternally will be a
confirmation of the same. If we die in union with God because of Jesus’ death
and resurrection, then we, by God’s grace and mercy, will live with God
eternally. Therefore, how shall we live? Paul gives us the answer. “Be firm,
steadfast and always devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain.”
