01 March 2025 – 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Martin Arlando

We begin with a riddle:

What has words but does not speak?
A book.

What has words but no one reads?
Terms and conditions.
Too small. No one wants to read that. So this is only in small print.

It is also said that action speaks louder than words. Of course we presume that those are edifying actions. Yet for those of us who are drivers on the road, we also know that on the road, some hand gestures can mean very impolite words. It doesn’t edify in any way at all.

So what has words but no one wants to hear?
It is an angry person.
The tongue that has no bones but it can break the heart. And the tongue of an angry person can cause a heart attack to the one who is listening and maybe even to the one using it.

So my dear friends, the tendency is that we use bad words to express our angry and bitter feelings. And there are some days the supply of available swear words are inefficient to meet our demands. And yes, we have those kind of days.

But bad moods and volatile emotions are never reasons to curse and use cruel words. And even if we regret it later, we can’t simply brush it off with ‘I didn’t mean what I said’.

No! We meant what we said. Just that at that moment, we couldn’t control it and we let it off our mouth before tasting those words.

So the problem is that we will never know how long our words will stay in someone’s heart. Even long after we have forgotten that we said them, whether for better or for worse.

So my dear friends, already from this we are reminded of the lessons of life. One of which is that we must control our tongue when our heart is bitter. Certainly we say silence is better than angry words. Or maybe we can just type out the message that we want on the apps or the notes itself but we do not send it to the other person but we read it afterwards and we will see how ugly the situation would have been if you had sent that message.

And also, angry words are spoken with raised voice. But instead of raising our voice, let us raise our words. It is the rain that grows flowers, not the thunder. But words, whether kind or otherwise, are just expressions from a source. And the source of our words is none other than our heart.

And that’s why Jesus said in today’s Gospel passage that a man’s words flow out from what fills his heart. And that’s why words can heal or hurt. It is from one heart to another. So only a heart can heal another heart. And a heart can break another heart, with words that flow from the heart.

And as Jesus said:
A good man draws what is good from the goodness of his heart, a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness from his heart.

Let me illustrate further.

There were two altar servers who lived in two different cities, serving in different churches but both of them wanted to become priests. Both of them had the exact same experience. 

One altar server was late for Mass. And because he was in a hurry to do everything he needed to do, he accidentally knocked the chalice that contained the wine. After the Mass, the priest called the boy and shouted, “Get out of here! You will never serve as an altar server again!”

And then at another church, the altar server was also late for Mass. And he too knocked the chalice that contained the wine, spilling it onto the floor. But after the Mass, the priest called the altar server and said, “It is all right. You will do better next time. You will be a fine priest for God someday.”

And so thirty years later, the second altar server became Archbishop Fulton Sheen whom we know very well. And the other altar server, he became Josip Tito, an Atheist and a ruthless dictator of Yugoslavia.

 

So my dear friends, words are powerful. They can heal or hurt. They can encourage or destroy. And every day we hear polite and kind words, as well as impolite and hurtful words. And then what happens?

Our heart is like a sink trap. All the polite and kind words get drained away quickly. And what is left in the sink trap are the remnants. And in this case, the impolite and hurtful words. And much as those remnants in the sink trap are to be gotten rid off, somehow we let them stay there, right in our hearts. And of course, those things don’t do any good to our hearts.

And so today, my dear friends, Jesus talks about what is stored in our hearts. And He reminds us that our hearts are created to be good because our hearts are created by God. So Jesus wants to clean our hearts of all that rubbish that is caught in the sink trap of our hearts. Jesus wants to clean and heal our hearts and make it a store of goodness. Jesus wants to make our hearts like His.

And so my dear friends, instead of criticising others, why not be caring for them? If we care for them, we will listen not only to what they are saying but also to what they are trying to say with or without words. And if we care for them, we won’t impose our views, our plans, ideas, discipline, advice, correction, guidance and our judgment.

If we care for them, we won’t jump at every opportunity to point out their blunders to make them feel foolish. If we care for them, we will show them how talented, capable, industrious, genuine, original, skilled, creative, trustworthy, resourceful, good and lovable persons that they are.

Let me end with a story:

Once a water bearer had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. So one of the pots had a crack in it and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the Master’s house whereas the cracked pot arrived only half full.

So for a full two years, this went on daily with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his Master’s house. And of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

So after two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

“I am ashamed of myself and I want to apologise to you.”

The bearer asked, “Why? What are you ashamed of?”

And the pot replied, “For these past two years, I am able to deliver only half of my load because of this crack in my side that causes water to leak out all the way back to your Master’s house. And because of my flaws, you don’t get full value of your efforts.”

So the water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot and in his compassion he said, “As we returned to the Master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

And so as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path. And this cheered it somewhat. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load. And so again it apologised to the bearer of its failure.

And the bearer said to the pot, “Did you noticed that there were flowers only on your side of your path but not on the other pot’s side? That is because I have always known about your flaw and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path and every day while we walk back from the stream, you have watered them. For two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my Master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

 

My dear friends, each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots in some way or another. But in this world, nothing goes to waste. You may think like the cracked pot that you are inefficient or useless in certain areas of your life but somehow, these flaws can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

And so my dear friends, let us recognise the blessings that God has given us and allow for healing of our hearts in the areas that we need to.

And may we allow Jesus to fill our hearts with His love so that what fills our hearts our mouths will give thanks and praise and proclaim the Good News of God’s love to others.

And so as we celebrate this Eucharist, let us pray for this grace that we will stir and let a good heart grow within us. Not to be a sink trap but really something that will proclaim God through our words and actions.

Let us pray for the grace that our heart will be after the heart of Jesus. We pray for this grace during this Mass.

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