8th Sunday of Ordinary Time, C March 2, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
While at lunch in the seminary dining room one day, the conversation got onto the topic of how people acted when they were fans of something: famous people, stories, music and so on. When one book in particular came up, I casually interjected, “oh man, I hate fans of that book” only to look up and lock eyes with someone who was indeed a fan of that very book, a horrified expression on his face. It’s still a clear memory for me – his face, the way the atmosphere at the table changed, the sinking feeling of realizing the harm of my thoughtless words.
I did find him later to apologize and we got along just fine after that. The truth is that I didn’t really hate him or anyone else who was a fan of the book. I actually liked the book myself, but I found some tendencies of the fans to be… annoying. Still, that moment revealed something important to me about my own character. Sirach tells us, “when a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one’s faults when one speaks.” Jesus puts it this way: “from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” Point is, I had some conversion to do.
Turns out I was filling my heart with unnecessary complaining and criticism. Turns out I was too impatient with fairly common human tendencies. Turns out I had a habit of paying too much attention to my own ideas and not enough attention to how my actions affected the people around me. There’s a time and a place for saying things people don’t like to hear, but my casual use of “hatred” over something so trivial and right to the face of another person was nowhere near that.
We’ve all got faults like that, things that will take a few mistakes to notice and some serious work to fix. It helps to know up front what doesn’t work and, of course, to learn from what Jesus tells us here.
First, it does not work to just say to yourself “I won’t talk like that again.” I mean, you do need to make that resolution and you do need to try not to say awful things, but that’s not a lasting solution. The words we speak are not the source of the problem. It wasn’t as simple as telling myself not to say “I hate so-and-so,” I had to actually work on not hating people in my heart. The words are the symptom of the problem, the fruit of a bad tree. You don’t target the fruit or the symptoms, you go to the root, to the virus.
That’s what Jesus is getting at: from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. If you want to stop saying stupid things, stop filling your heart with stupid things. If you want to stop saying wicked things, stop filling your heart with wicked things. Of course, you can’t just focus on what you don’t do, you have to focus on what to do correctly as well, to fill your heart with good things.
Along the way, you’ll have to accept that fact that you will make mistakes. Our hearts are already full of various kinds of wickedness; it’s not something we can uproot in a single moment. When you speak, you are going to reveal your faults and failings at least some of the time. Our words really are a test of character, a revelation of what’s inside. Perhaps that’s why fear of public speaking is always near the top of the list of most common fears. It’s bad enough that I risk exposing my faults when I speak to just a few people… to stand up in front of whole crowds and start talking… what if they all see the ugly mess that is inside?
Fair enough, but hiding from the crowd won’t actually get rid of the faults and foulness inside, it will just keep them hidden. You will have to deal with them eventually. There’s prudence in not putting yourself in a position to really mess up before you’re ready, but take that too far and you’ll just end up running from life itself. Indeed, making mistakes in front of others is part of how we see our faults.
Ultimately, if I want to say the right things, I should try to be the right kind of person. No one can possibly be on guard all the time. There is no outside, systematic method to get the right results because that’s not how life works, not how human beings work. From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. So fill your heart well.
Do you think Jesus had a script at all times? A checklist of which miracles he’d do and when? When you read the gospels, you don’t see Jesus laying out clever methods or following strict external rules. We see him pray, then we see him love in whatever form that happens to take in the moment. Jesus isn’t the perfect actor, he has a perfect heart which is revealed in all he does and says.
Don’t get me wrong, methods and scripts and programs are valuable tools that we have to use, but they are not a replacement for good heart. In fact, the best way to use such things is to use them to shape your own heart. “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.” As cliché as it is to say from the pulpit: be like Jesus! You want a Lenten resolution? Make that your resolution: be like Jesus!
Don’t just copy him externally, become like him. Being comes before acting. Yes, you should have concrete things to do this Lent, just make sure they’re aimed at actually shaping your heart into a good heart instead of only trying to cover up the symptoms of a bad heart. Lent is always about 3 things: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. But, those 3 things are really about one thing: putting God in our hearts.
Give alms: find the place your heart most resists being generous. Is it money? Is it time with certain kinds of people? It is doing certain kinds of tasks you’re supposed to do? Do you avoid talking in front of people when your really should? Don’t set too high a bar, but resolve to lean in a little. Once a day, once a week, give in a way your selfish heart wants to avoid.
Pray. Look for one way your heart tends to resist praying. For most of us, it’s probably not listening in prayer. Read scripture, be silent in front of the Eucharist, pay attention to the words of the Mass. For others, it might be refusing to admit to God what’s really going on. Tell him your real thoughts and feelings, not what you think he wants you to say. Pray more this Lent. Make some of that prayer something you enjoy but also look for one way to pray that stretches your heart to fit a little more Jesus and little less of yourself.
Fasting. Give up sin, yes, always. But a fast is supposed to be giving up something good. Find something not sinful, but something that still competes with your love of God, something that fills your heart in the place God is supposed to be. Give that up. Maybe it’s all of Lent, maybe there are exceptions on special days, maybe it’s once a week. Find a way to make more room for God in your heart.
One way to tell if it’s working is to look at the way you talk, for it is in speaking that we are tested. Are your Lenten practices making your words kinder? Truer? More helpful? Our words don’t need to be eloquent or perfect, they only need to be good. And when our words inevitably cause trouble, do not despair. Thank God for revealing the problem, be humbled by it, notice what’s wrong in your heart, then start putting God there instead. Use confession and penance to root the evil out of your heart. Use prayer and the Eucharist to put God into your heart. Do that sincerely enough and long enough and it will show even in your words.