Measure Your Words

A Reflection on the First Reading for March 3rd, 2019:
​Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

​Sirach 27

When a sieve is shaken, the refuse appears; so do one’s faults when one speaks. The kiln tests the potter’s vessels; so the test of the just person is in tribulation.

Its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of the mind. Do not praise someone before they speak, for this is the way people are tested.

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​This reading is a great reminder to me to be slow to speak, as words reveal much about our inner wounds. I’m reminded of how quick I am at times to be upset with someone whose words are harsh, unkind, or hurtful. Then I become aware that angry, self-absorbed people are just people who are stuck in their pain. 

As the potter moulds in the furnace, so we are moulded in the furnace of life. We are born innocent and then our life experiences shape how we see and act in the world. Thank God for God! Left on our own to make sense of the messiness of life we could easily become confused and despondent but God is our Potter and as such He can and does mould the clay of our life experiences into incredible pieces of art. I love seeing myself as God’s best work of art—a Rembrandt of sorts. My beauty may not be visible to the eye of the beholder but it is visible to the eye of the artist.

"... God is our Potter and as such He can and does mould the clay of our life experiences into incredible pieces of art."

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Scripture says the fruit of the tree shows the care that it has been given. We have the best Caregiver of all times. We are constantly being nurtured and cared for by The Potter of All Creation. How much easier it is to take our life experiences to this Potter and have Him shape it into something beautiful than it is to let the dry, harshness of life ruin those whom God has created.

My dear friends in Christ: measure your words carefully for as scripture says, one’s speech shows the bent of one’s mind. We don’t know what has bent the mind of those around us, but we do know that God see His work of art in them and so must we. Put on the mind of Christ and let your beauty shine.

​Patricia Cosgrove

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