Tuesday, June 6, 2023

SPEAK TRUTH WITH HUMILITY

Meditation for Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
(Tobit 2:9-14; Mk 12:13-17)

How easily words can slip off our mouths and result to consequences we never intended. Dishonesty in speech comes when what we say is different from what we have in mind or when we say what is not true. Words can communicate the best of our virtues. Also, they can easily sell out our pride and arrogance. Often times, words are handy tools of provocation and revenge. This is obvious in the first reading, where the wife of Tobit took revenge at him for provoking her by angrily making jest of his charitable works.

 

The Pharisees and the Herodians set trap for Jesus to entrap Him in His own talk. They knew those addressing the public can easily err in answering questions or in their own teachings. This is usually the case when one speaks to impress people and boast his ego. Also, one can easily be trapped in his own speech if he is speaking falsehood or when what he is saying does not edify or glorify God. Thus, Jesus escaped the trap, saying, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” At the end, the Pharisees and the Herodians fell in their own trap.

 

Let us learn from the example of Jesus and speak truth with humility and love, and to the glory of God. In this way, no one can entrap us in our own words. “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble” (Proverbs 21:23).  Amen.

 

 

Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,

Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.

Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com

 

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