Hearts Overflow through Mouths

After my regular lectio divina on the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday and my Psalm prayers, I have been reading through the Apocrypha for my general education. I am up to Sirach 23. Sirach generally seems like an overblown, moralistic, pietistic expansion on Proverbs. A lot of “common sense” from someone who wants to live an upright life before God who is urging others to do the same. Rather frequently I cringe at a kind of disparaging of the weak and poor and marginalized that I think would have raised the hackles of the Hebrew Prophets, and certainly Jesus. Recognizing this, today I was encountered a juxtaposition that speaks to me and our present time.

Psalm 141:2 “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.”

Sirach 22:27 “Who will set a guard over my mouth, and an effective seal upon my life, so that I may not fall because of them, and my tongue may not destroy me?”

This returned me yet again to a conversation I had with Henri Nouwen in 1992 about losing my temper with our then 7 year old son Erik (who will be 34 on Friday). Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45) Henri told me, “If you want to know what is in your heart, listen to what you say when you speak before you think.” I have amended that to include what I manage to stop myself from saying with even a bit of thinking. Henri went on to say, “You cannot fix this by being more vigilant about what you speak. You can only fix it by what you put into your heart and store there. If you want to stop some of what you speak, you have to fill your heart with other things that will crowd them out so when you speak before you think, it will be the overflow of your intimacy with Jesus.”

I really do want to keep the focus on God’s reminder to me about my own heart and words today. With all that is associated with the internet and social media, I would suggest that what we post and tweet are also windows into the contents of our hearts. So much of what I see from my friends and from people in positions of power seems to suggest a lot of hearts overflowing with anger and disrespect. Enough said.