Saturday, February 19, 2022. Scripture and Meditation from Magnificat: every once in a while I find something I really like. LES
No human being can tame the tongue.
A reading from
the Letter of Saint James 3:1-10
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions.
Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this need not be so.
The word of the Lord. “Thanks be to God.”
Ascending the Mountain to Find Jesus and Mary
Some years ago a traveler came to a high mountain. He had journeyed from teeming city to country village; he had joined in the reveling of metropolitan nightlife and small-town carnival; he had enjoyed the quiet of a family at home. Yet he was restless and he sought peace. The mountain beckoned him and he began to climb. Higher and higher he went, leaving far behind the noises of the marketplace, the cries of men at work. Soon even the earth itself was blotted out and he looked down only on the fleecy whiteness of leisurely clouds. He reached the top and found there a flower—a flower heretofore seen only by the sun, that had never been bruised or trampled by rushing feet, whose beauty was known only to God and the angels; a flower that reached out yet higher, striving for the limitless heavens above. He found a flower and he found peace, for through the flower he found God.
The way of God is order and divine order is manifest in creation and in everything that God has done. A stone he made, but it could not grow or feel or think; a flower could not feel or think, but was and grew. The birds of the air came forth from his hands, knowing the breeze, seeking the sunshine. Out of the clay rose man, and God breathed into him an immortal soul. Yet even this was not enough, for to that soul God sent his Spirit, gave to it grace, made it like unto himself, partaker of his own eternity. Of all the souls thus lifted, God chose one to ascend to unimaginable heights, the soul of his own Mother, Mary, the flower of mankind, the lily of Israel.
She may be called queen who ranks the first in any excellence. By such a measure is Mary Queen, indeed the Queen of queens. No angel is so pure but that she is purity. No prophet is so wise but that she is wisdom. No apostle is so zealous but that her love reaches out in him and before him in the souls of men. She is filled with grace, most like to God, and from her God takes flesh. God is holy, Mary is the holy Queen.
Father Elwood Ferrer Smith, o.p.
Father Smith († 1992) was an American Dominican priest, theologian, professor, and author. / From The Mariological Institute Lectures, Theological Series, Volume 1. © 1959, St. John’s University Press, Jamaica, Queens. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
The Gospel today is the Transfiguration: Mark 9: 2-13. LES
