From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks

13 SEPTEMBER (Lk 6,43-49)

Today, Jesus reveals us a great truth. Our every word is the fruit of our tree. If the tree of our heart is good, it produces good words. On the contrary, if it is bad, it will always produce bad words. Seeing the result, you instantly recognize the tree. Let no one think to gather good fruit from the evil tree of his heart. Let everyone reassures himself: if his heart is good, even his words will be good. This truth is beautifully illuminated by St. James.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers. Does a spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh (Jm 3,1-12).

No one might ever govern the tongue if he does not govern the heart. The heart is governed in one way alone: removing from our chest with the power of the Holy Spirit the one of stone to put in its place one of flesh, entirely spiritual, each day formed to the truth and love of Jesus Christ. This is a uninterrupted work. It never ends. Always at its beginning. We realize that the heart is not entirely spiritual from the little holy words that come out of our mouth. They are the ones to reveal us the state of our soul and our spirit. A holy word reveals a holy heart. A word of sin, lie, selfishness and idolatry reveals a heart of sin.

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”

The heart must be daily built, edified and forged on the word of Jesus. The Word of the Gospel is the healthy and nutritious nourishment of our hearts. Who feeds the heart with the Gospel, makes it stable forever. There may also be the most violent and ugly spiritual storms, but the heart resists. It is founded on the Word of Jesus. On the contrary, if it is founded on the sand of human words, human philosophies and human thoughts, then at the first light breeze, the heart collapses, it becomes a reed shaken by the wind, it indulges in any theory and follows every fashion. Many are the hearts that every day collapse under the storms of temptation, because they are not firmly rooted in Christ and in his Gospel. The Word of the Good News is the rock of true stability of our spiritual life. Who builds and rises upon it will remain stable forever. There will be no temptations for him. His house will always be strong.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints build us on the Word.