As a writer, I willingly admit that I pay more attention to words than most people. Not only do I choose mine carefully, but I also tend to analyze the things that people say. I listen to the spoken as well as the unspoken. I strive to separate fact from opinion. I double check the main points I glean from interviews/conversations so that I can thoughtfully summarize one’s overarching theme for a story.
The bottom line is that words matter. Jesus knows this and He says as much in today’s Gospel. Ironically though, the text is more than a little confusing. While some see His position as a blanket ban on all forms of “swearing.” Others see it as a caution against frivolous testimony. Personally, I think if Jesus were giving this speech today, He might say it like this: “Say what you mean and mean what you say. Use plain and simple language. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Don’t promise more than you can deliver and don’t drag God into your grandiose statements when He hasn’t given you an endorsement.”
But that’s easier said than done, isn’t it? And there is a LOT of wiggle room. Even the above statement contradicts itself in the first three sentences. Who among us has not had to balance that fine line between the truth and a fib when someone’s feelings might be hurt by brutal honesty? (i.e. Do I look OK in this outfit? Do these jeans make me look fat? Will it hurt?) Although we may not outright lie to someone’s face, we often edit our opinion in an effort to be kind or to soften the emotional blow.
As for making frivolous promises, we’ve all done that and sometimes with the best of intentions. How often do we tell terminally ill people that we promise they are going to “beat this thing.” (Whatever “thing” they happen to be fighting.) We promise folks will be fine in whatever awful situation they are in when in reality, there is no way we can know that. Jesus said we can’t change a single strand of hair from white to black, so where do we get off reassuring people in peril? For whose benefit are we doing it? Does it make us feel better having said something positive? Are we offering false hope? Would Jesus rather us be a bunch of Debbie Downers? How can I avoid the narrow occasion of sin when it feels like I’m hosed no matter what position I take?
And then there is the big one…bringing God into it. When I was a kid, if there was a questionable boast on the playground, it was not uncommon to hear an individual “swear on their grandmother’s grave” that whatever they were saying was, in fact, the truth. I’m not quite sure why a deceased relative’s place of rest adds more weight to one’s credibility, but perhaps it has something to do with that relative’s close proximity to God. They may not be “swearing to God” per se…but they are doing it tangentially.
Look, I don’t want to speak for God or anything, but I’m pretty sure He doesn’t like getting dragged into our arguments or jigsawed into our positions. I don’t know this for a fact, but I know that I wouldn’t want my own name bandied about like that, so I have to assume God doesn’t want it either. Besides. I thought we were supposed to adhere to what He wants, not the other way around.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is compelling us to choose our words wisely. We don’t have to say everything that comes into our heads and it is important to consider the most honest yet kind way to say something without crossing into that grey area of white lies. Words have a lot of power behind them and it is important to wield that power responsibly. Words have the power to create and they have the power to destroy. And as the Word made Flesh who was created and destroyed for our benefit, I guess He would know that better than anybody.
Today’s readings for Mass: 2 COR 5:14-21; PS 103: 1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12; MT 5: 33-37.
