Many years ago, my mother advised me to guard my tongue because my words might come back to haunt me. It took me a while to figure out what she meant, but similar advice can be found in scripture. “Be quick to hear and slow to speak,” St. James tells us (Jm 1:19). The ability to hear and to speak are indeed powerful tools that can either create life, or ruin lives. In a literal sense, our words can lead either to death or to life (Prov 21).
Consider the words of Jesus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (Jn 6:51; cf Mt 26:26-28). These are powerful, life-giving words. Given the creative power of the spoken word, is it any wonder that the people brought a deaf mute to Jesus for healing?
In fact, the power of the spoken word inspires the evangelist John to open his gospel with the claim that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). His claim calls to mind the book of Genesis where God creates all things by the spoken word; God said, and it was so. John goes on to assert that “the Word became flesh and lived among us as the father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). John aims to show that Jesus is the embodied Word of God who continues the life-giving work of the Father in truth and in Spirit (Jn 6:63; 4:24).
Jesus also points to the power of words when he tells the crowds that, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile” (Mk 7:15). What comes out of a person are the hidden beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and intentions, both good and bad, that a person expresses in speech. This idea motivates Paul to counsel the Ephesians that the word they have heard and were taught is reason enough to live a new life in the spirit of Christ. Indeed, Paul asserts that “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ” (Rm 10:17).
For that reason, Paul says very plainly that we should speak the truth to each other, especially for the edification and support of those who need it. To that end, Paul urges us to remove all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting and all malice from our speech. Rather, Paul urges us to be kind, compassionate and forgiving of one another as God has forgiven us. In other words, we must speak in a way that reflects the love of Christ (Eph 4:20-35).
As it turns out, guarding my tongue, as my mother counselled long ago, is pretty good advice. That practice enables us to avoid the criticism that Jesus made of the Pharisees: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mk 7:6). We know that God hears the cry of the poor. In that case, we hope to be among those who are blessed because they have heard the word of God and observed it (Lk 11:28; cf Jm 1:26; Ps 141:3).
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