The Third Tongue

The current political battleground is one of words, and daily we are barraged by their hurtful nature and intent.  Words hurt.

As you fence in your property with thorns, so make a door and a bolt for your mouth. As you lock up your silver and gold, so make balances and scales for your words.  Take care not to err with your tongue, and fall victim to one lying in wait. - Sirach 28:24-26

In today's reading, Sirach warns us to guard our words more than our property.   He is talking about slander, which in Greek, he calls the third tongue, because it kills three people, the speaker, the hearer and the person slandered.

Once the words are released, they become free agents, doing all sorts of evil, without recall or recourse.  It is hard to unsay what one has said and regretted.

You would think that with the nature of the internet and instantaneous communication, we would learn to think before we speak, to structure our thoughts before typing out an angry text message, to remember that everyone around us has a camera at the ready.

But for some reason, it seems we are doing the opposite.  We are taking down the filters and offering more embarrassing glimpses of ourselves for all the world to see.  And in the process, we hurt others, possibly more than we damage ourselves.

We seem to want to become victims of our own exploitation, and then taking pride in it.

There have been times in my life when I said things to people or about people that I wish I could take back, even now, so many years later.  But I can't.  All I can do is seek forgiveness and try never to do the same again, to anyone.

Isn't that the whole point of God's decision to come among us?  Isn't that the primary lesson of all Scripture?  Acknowledge what you have done, seek forgiveness, repent, and never repeat.

So, perhaps today we can bridle our tongues and catch those nasty words before they come out.  Then we will only have to worry about the words of others.

Can we guarantee that we will not respond with kind when we hear someone else lash out?

That's the true test, isn't it?

Is that when we need to count to ten?

More to come...