305th Meditation
“Lord, mount a guard over my mouth, a guard at the door of my lips” (Ps 141:3).
Who can control his tongue? The Apostle James answers us: “Nobody can tame the tongue — it is a pest that will not keep still, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).
Indeed, how many sins are committed through negative, loveless and evil words! How difficult it is for us people to restrain our tongue when it is inflamed with negative feelings and thus hurts other people!
But it is not only negative words that need to be restrained, but also the many unnecessary words that can make the atmosphere become worldly and superficial and hardly open it up to the presence of God.
In view of this, we are so in need of our Father’s help to mount a guard over our mouth. We need that voice which admonishes us and calls us inwardly to order when we fall into disorder; that voice of the Holy Spirit, which will quickly make us perceive – provided we are willing to listen – when our words are offending against charity. The more we allow ourselves to be formed in this area, the sooner we will notice it.
The “guard at the door of our lips” could be interpreted as vigilance over our thoughts, which precede the words our mouth utters and which, if they do not correspond to the Will of God, we must dash against the rock of Christ, as St. Benedict taught his monks. This means that we begin to perceive the thoughts and feelings that arise within us and deal with them through prayer, before they are reflected in our words. If we can do this, then we have achieved enough and can save unnecessary discomfort to the people with whom we live. Gradually, however, we will have to overcome through inner prayer all those words, thoughts and feelings that we have held back.
In all this we need divine help, which the Father will surely grant us gladly, because in this way His love can transform us and make us more like Him.