330th Meditation
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil” (Ps 141:3-4a).
The tongue is “a whole wicked world” (James 3:6) and it is from our heart that evil proceeds (cf. Mt 15:19). This is what Sacred Scripture tells us, with its incomparable sobriety and without beating about the bush. “Who can discern his errors?” (Ps 19:12).
Our Father, who makes us see all this, also comes to our aid. Thus, we are not simply at the mercy of the wickedness of our heart, but we can ask the Lord to mount a “guard” before it.
What better guard than the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son poured into our hearts (Rom 5:5)? An evil heart and a tongue inflamed by it are contrary to love. Moreover, they are witnesses of the remoteness from God in which we find ourselves inwardly. Therefore, it is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, who counteracts evil in us. If we are in danger of being inclined to evil, it is He who warns us. It is also He, our divine Friend, who brings the Lord to our remembrance and calls us to make our thoughts and words glorify God. And it is He who can heal the wounds of evil.
In addition to our will, we need above all God’s grace to be transformed. Our words must come from a pure heart; words that do not hurt others, but that strengthen, edify and comfort them.
This pure heart our Father wants to give us. It is He Himself who gives it to us: “I will give you a new heart” (Ezek 36:26); but, at the same time, He calls us to cooperate: “Make yourselves a new heart” (Ezek 18:31).
May the verse of the psalm that we have meditated on today move us to turn to the Lord to implore Him to grant us a pure heart; and, at the same time, to do our part, keeping watch over our heart and our words.