BRIDLE OUR TONGUE
Christianity is a way of life that is only
as effective as it is concretely lived out. As James wrote, "If anyone
thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart,
his religion is vain" (Jas 1:26).
In the first reading from the Letter of
St. James, we can clearly see that James has very little tolerance for flowery,
pious words that evaporate almost as soon as they are spoken. He emphasizes the
need to be "doers of the word." Words alone are not enough! The
challenge is to take the words of the Gospel and put them into practice.
We see Jesus taking action in today's
Gospel by curing a blind man. Take note that his sight isn't completely healed
until Jesus lays His hands on him. It is only then that he is able to see
perfectly. This is a great metaphor of what happens to the spiritual blindness
of the disciples. They come to see more clearly and their blindness, likewise,
is overcome in stages.
The fact that the disciples took such a
long time to catch on to what Jesus was all about can be, in a way, comforting
to us. Most importantly, their experience of gradually learning to see, to have
faith in Jesus as the Savior, teaches us that faith for any one of us is always
a growing affair. It is never complete and full at any one moment. Experiences
and changes in our lives all bring up new demands, make new requirements of
faith, and cause us to actualize our faith. To say that we really have faith in
the Lord as our Redeemer and Savior means a lot more when we are still able to
say it after a life-threatening illness or the devastating loss of a son or
daughter. Faith grows and deepens within us through experiences that are both
good and bad.
Our challenge from the Scripture
readings, today, is to be attentive to the issues of justice, which are
symbolized by the phrase, "To care for orphans and widows in their
affliction" (Jas 1:27). James, as well as Jesus Christ, is apparently
aware of how easy it is for us to get all caught up in our rhetoric, our laws,
and our abstract truths. We need to remember that Christianity is a way of life
that is only as effective as it is concretely lived out. As James wrote,
"If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but
deceives his heart, his religion is vain" (Jas 1:26).
It is about being doers of the word!