We just heard in the gospel how our Lord restores to the deaf mute both his hearing and his
tongue, his ability to speak.
But we need to recognize that with every gift comes a responsibility.
Our Lord has given us many gifts.
The first gift he gives us is our existence.
But the biggest gift that he has given us, our intelligence and our will, making us in
his own image and likeness, brings with it great responsibility.
That is, we have the responsibility to use our intellect to know God ever more truly.
And we are to use our will to love God ever more deeply.
And so here we see he restores the gift of speech to the man who is mute.
And again, he needs to use this gift in the proper manner, not to abuse it, just as our
intellect and our will can also be abused.
Our intellect can be abused by ignoring God, by being indifferent about him, by not seeking to know
him.
And our will can be abused by not loving God, choosing not to love him or choosing rather to hate
him.
And so the same thing with this gift of speech.
It can be used properly or it can be abused and used for vice and sin.
And unfortunately, all too often, this gift of speech is abused.
We hear St.
James writes in his letter that the man who commits no offense by means of his word
is to be considered a perfect man.
That's how difficult it is to control this particular member of the body, to control
what we say and not give any offense.
If you can control that, St.
James says, you are a perfect man.
You are a perfect man.
If anyone makes no offense in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole
body also.
If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies.
See, now he's making a comparison to the bits used in the mouths of horses, horses, which
guides their direction.
And then he continues, look at the ships also.
Though they are so good, they are not as good as the ships.
Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small
rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs.
So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire.
And the tongue is a fire.
The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members.
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who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
My brethren, this ought not to be so.
But unfortunately, how often it is so.
We find this even among the most devout,
this difficulty of controlling our words,
of not being able to shut our mouths
when we need to shut our mouths out of charity towards neighbor.
And really, this vice starts off in very young children.
You know, we can imagine the scene,
a little girl in the kitchen eating her lunch,
and her mother yells in from the room next door,
Have you finished your lunch yet?
The little girl says yes,
as she hands half the scene.
And she gives the sandwich to the dog,
because she knows if she doesn't finish her lunch,
she's not going to get any dessert.
So she asks her mother,
Can I have some cookies now?
And the mother says,
Well, not until you finish your lunch.
Well, lunch is now finished.
I'm going for the cookies.
You see how easy it is to fall into that.
The little girl reflects,
Hey, everybody's happy.
I'm happy.
I get the cookies.
The dog's happy,
because he got half of my sandwich.
And the mother's happy,
because she thinks I finished lunch.
And it wasn't all that hard.
Nobody's hurt by it.
Everybody's happy.
And so this is how the vice begins in early childhood.
Very common among children to tell lies to their parents,
lies to their siblings,
lies to their friends.
It tends to smooth things over in an easy way.
And nobody is hurt by it.
So it seems.
Then, as the child grows,
becomes a young adult,
continues in school,
perhaps falls into cheating on a few tests,
and gets away with it.
You know, continues to deceive his parents
about where he is and what he is doing.
Then there's also the making of false IDs,
you know, to get into various places,
maybe to buy alcohol, etc.
And then that person,
having acquired the vice,
becomes an adult,
becomes an adult,
and enters the business world
and starts to serve the almighty dollar.
And guess what?
In pursuit of the almighty dollar,
every manner of deceit is justified.
And how often this happens in the business world
and among laborers, etc.
Lying about the jobs they've completed,
lying about the perceived cost for the work to be done,
lying about the work that actually needs to be done
and that is necessary.
Why?
All to make another buck.
And this, my brothers and sisters,
is no small vice.
Even though in many circumstances
lying is a venial sin,
nevertheless,
it shouldn't be taken lightly
because venial sins dispose us to mortal sins.
And many times you see the person
who takes these things lightly
is very often a slave to some other more serious sin.
And in fact,
to be a habitual liar
is to be a disciple of the devil.
Again,
to,
to acquire the vice of falsehood,
you follow the devil.
As our Lord says in the gospel,
you are of your father,
the devil,
who is a liar
and the father of lies.
The devil is a liar.
That is,
he lied to Adam and Eve.
You shall not die.
God said that they would die
if they ate their forbidden fruit.
The first death,
of course,
being a spiritual death,
mortal sin,
the death of the soul.
The second death to follow later on
would be the natural death,
the death of the body.
And so God did not lie.
But Satan lied by saying,
you shall not die.
And they fell for the lie.
So he is a liar and the father of lies
because then Adam and Eve,
following in his wake,
became his children.
You are children of your father,
the devil.
And they became liars.
What did Adam say
when he was asked by God?
The woman made me do it.
Well, no, she didn't.
You chose.
You chose to disobey.
And so that's what happens
to the liar.
He becomes a disciple of Satan.
Now, the person who is of the truth
becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ,
who is the truth.
As our Lord said,
I am the way,
I am the truth,
and I am the life.
Strange words to say,
I am the truth.
Not simply,
I know the truth,
I have the truth,
I proclaim the truth,
but I am the truth.
God is truth,
and Jesus is God.
And therefore,
he is the truth.
And whoever is of the truth,
as our Lord said,
hears his voice.
Whoever is of the truth,
hears our Lord's voice.
That is,
whoever tries to live an upright life,
to live in sincerity,
honesty,
and virtue,
whoever seeks the truth,
hears our Lord's voice,
who is the truth.
He who seeks,
finds.
And if you are of the truth,
you are not a child of the truth.
You are not a child of the truth.
You are not a child of the truth.
You are not a child of the devil.
But you are a child of God.
And so,
let's take this vice of lying seriously.
Let's take being people of the truth seriously.
Let's follow our Lord's example.
Let's hear his call.
And let our yes mean yes,
and our no mean no.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit,
and of the Holy Spirit.