News - February 2025 RSS Feed

Today, especially in our first reading, we are presented with a theme or topic that some or all us struggle with: speech/conversation. Our conversation or speech either edify and inspire good or bad like gossip, slander, character assassination. Several factors shape the kind of conversation we engage in. In the words of the author of the book of Sirach: “As the test of what a potter molds is in the furnace, so in his conversation is the test of a man. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had: so too does a man’s speech disclose the bent of his mind. Praise no man before he speaks, for it is then that men are tested.”

Jeremiah the prophet of God has a strong message for us. In his message he declared, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings… whose heart turns away from the Lord.” On the other hand, he says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters. It fears no heat or drought.”