Homily Ordinary 8C: Avoiding the sins of the tongue

Homily for 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2019 

Sirach 27:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; Luke 6:39-45

Introduction 

"Jesus told his disciples a parable,"; that's how our gospel today begins.  But actually what Jesus does here is not give one long parable, one story that teaches a lesson using images of ordinary life, like the parable of the Prodigal Son or the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Instead here he gives three very short riddles or proverbs.  And these three proverbs are: 

• That a blind person cannot lead another blind person. 
• That one should take a log out of their eye before attempting to remove a speck in another's eye. 
• That a good tree bears good fruit while a rotten tree bears rotten fruit. 

So what is the overall theme running through what seem like disparate parables? 

Scripture and Theology 

For our homily today, I would like to reflect on these parables through the lens of the sins of the tongue.  That Jesus here is talking about how we should use our speech is suggested by the setting of these parables: 

• First, these parables follow immediately upon where we left off last Sunday, when Jesus said: “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned," a clear injunction not to use our speech unfairly and incorrectly against another. 
• Second, today's gospel ends with the words "from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks."  And so in way, our short three parables are sandwiched at both ends by a clear instruction about using speech, and we can see them as ways of elaborating on that message. 

Jesus gives the first parable in form of a rhetorical question: "Can a blind person guide a blind person?"  Of course not, since both will fall into a pit, perhaps one of those abandoned water wells found in Palestine.  Obviously the person who is physically blind lacks the ability to see potential obstacles and dangers and will not only harm themselves but also those others who are depending on them. 

But much worse is spiritual blindness, to which this image of physical blindness points; the failure to know God's will for us similarly leads to spiritual harm.  That is why Jesus goes on to explain that the disciple must not presume to know more than his teacher, at least until he has been trained like his teacher.  A disciple who presumes such knowledge can be said to be spiritually blind; and when they lead others they lead them too into the pit of spiritual destruction.

How often today people mislead others because they themselves don't know what they are talking about.  You see this all over social media, when people write and post on social media all kinds of things that are not based in the truth.  But even in the traditional media of talking on the phone, or shooting the breeze as they say, we can peddle such blind guidance.  Such falsehoods are fairly innocuous if they are dealing with pictures of cats, one's favourite dishes or even one's favourite sports team.  But they are particularly dangerous if they deal with matters of the spiritual life and of the moral life, with our relationship with God and with fellow man.  The message of this first parable, therefore is this: "Have you used your tongue to mislead because you yourself are spiritually blind?" 

Jesus also begins the second parable with a rhetorical question: "Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?"  Of course the answer is that you shouldn't.  Instead: "Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye."  Perhaps more clearly than the first parable, this absurd image of the log in one's eye shows once again how a lack of self-knowledge is a very dangerous thing.  Here we are not only talking about inability to see, but we are also talking about hypocrisy of the highest level.  Such hypocrisy often occurs when we claim to see the faults of others, but cannot see our own greater faults.  And like Jesus warned we are often very fast to express judgement and condemnation when we see the splinter of sin in the other. 

Now let us be clear that Jesus is not saying we cannot point out the sins of others unless we are completely squeaky clean ourselves; for nobody is without sin, except Jesus and the Blessed Mother.  No, what he is asking is that we do  both, but start with our own sinfulness.  In fact, it is by dealing with our own sinfulness first, that we can more easily see the sins of others, and perhaps even understand why they do what they do, and offer them the most effective help to repent and return to righteousness. Some of the greatest saints like St. Paul and St. Augustine were able to speak so clearly about sin, only because they had reflected on their own sinfulness, rejected it and gained better insight, thanks to the light of God.  And so the message of this second parable is this: "Before speaking about the sins of others, something which we must often do, especially to help them repent, have we looked at our own condition before God?" 

The third parable about good trees and good fruit should be familiar with, since we say, that the apple does not fall far from the tree.  But while we use this image to speak about a son taking after his father, or a daughter after her mother, Jesus uses the image to teach about the relationship between inner virtue and external testimony.  He says: "For every tree is known by its own fruit.  For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, [but certainly from a fig tree] nor do they gather grapes from brambles [but from a vine shrub]."  And so if we are the tree and our words and actions are the fruit, then only a good person will produce good words and good actions; a an evil person, will produce evil words and evil actions. 

Returning to our theme of speech, our speech can only reflect what is going on in our hearts.  Unless we cultivate hearts and minds that are filled with virtue and truth, our words cannot but lack truth and virtue.  That is probably why Jesus said of the disciple earlier, that they need training, so that they can teach the truth like their teacher.  And so the question for us from this third parable is this: "Do we take the trouble to form ourselves in virtue, goodness and truth, so that our words come from hearts that are virtuous like good fruit comes from good trees?" 

Christian Life and Conclusion 

James Melton (via Msgr. Pope) offers a list of ten ways of sinning with the tongue, sins which Jesus in today's gospel, instructs us to avoid. 

1. The Lying Tongue that speaks falsehoods to intentionally mislead others. 
2. The Flattering Tongue that overstates the good qualities of others so as to win their favour, through lying and brown-nosing. 
3. The Proud Tongue that overstates the good qualities about oneself, so as to seem more than they actually are, again through lying. 
4. The Overused Tongue that speaks too much, too often, about everything, even about things they know little or nothing about. 
5. The Swift Tongue that draw conclusions from very little information or none. 
6. The Backbiting Tongue that talks about others behind their backs, harming their reputation by calumny (lying about them) or detraction (drawing attention to their faults). 
7. The Tale-bearing Tongue that spreads information about others, information that should not be shared. 
8. The Cursing Tongue that wishes others harm and damnation. 
9. The Piercing Tongue that speaks with needless harshness and severity, vitriol and nastiness. 
10. The Silent Tongue that does not speak up when it should, especially to warn people about sin, as well as to speak up for others. 

May our tongues never speak from blindness, or with a log in our eyes, but always be the fruit of a tree that is steeped in virtue and truth.