I WOKE up this morning wondering why the sound track of Star Wars was playing in my mind. And in my coffee with Jesus early this morning, the face of my old Jesuit spiritual director, Fr. Hernando Maceda, flashed in my imagination, reminding me that I had not done my examination of consciousness last night because I was too sleepy already, so I might as well incorporate it in my morning prayer. It was he who kept reminding me to never allow a day to pass without doing some kind of a spiritual audit and coming up with a balance sheet of the soul, noting my spiritual assets and liabilities, reviewing moments of consolation and desolation, acknowledging my shortcomings, and expressing gratitude for life’s blessings.
You see, if Luke Skywalker in Star Wars had a Jedi called Obi-Wan Kenobi and later Yoda, who mentored him in harnessing the energy that he needed against the dark forces of Darth Vader, I had my Jesuit spiritual formators at San Jose Seminary who trained me in the discipline of prayer and discernment. And one of the most important spiritual exercises they taught me was the daily consciousness examen, and the practice of journal writing, something like a spiritual diary which I allowed him to read, and through which he could track down the movements of spirits inside me.
Let us reflect now on today’s Gospel, focusing on the line where Jesus says, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” I am sure you heard the news that went viral the other day about the heated conversation between US President Trump (in the company of VP Vance), and Ukrainian President Zelensky. It was while listening to their exchange of words that I realized how much wisdom there is in our readings today, especially the reminder that we heard from Sirach about betraying ourselves by the kind of words that come out of our mouths. In Tagalog, we say it differently: “Nahuhuli ang isda sa bibig.” (A fish is caught by its mouth.) By their words, I could see the POTUS and the VPOTUS showing what was in their hearts.
Our Gospel warns us about three things that could come out of our hearts through our mouths, especially during our unguarded moments.
Firstly, superiority complex. I like the way Jesus puts it in the form of a hypothetical question: Can the blind lead the blind? Are they not bound to fall into the ditch? It is what I felt I was watching in the news. Sometimes, what we observe as a superiority complex is actually a deep kind of inferiority complex that is finding an opportunity to take its revenge. It is dangerous when people who have been bullied end up bullying others because they have never helped to process the experience. All the store of unresolved feelings of victimhood will find its way out when given the chance to get even.
The second most common thing that could come out of us is self-righteousness. Jesus injects humor in the way he describes a self-righteous behavior. He asks, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank or the wooden beam in your own eye?” Maybe Rico Puno found it difficult to understand so he reworded it in one of his old songs “Bago mo linisin ang dungis ng iyong kapwa, hugasan ang iyong putik sa mukha.” A holier-than-thou attitude will tend to project itself in the concept of the Church as a restricted company of the holy and deserving. I like one meme posted on FB with the following statement: “Questioning the presence of sinners inside our Churches is like asking why the sick go to the hospital.” You have surely heard me say many times, “The Eucharist is not an exclusive meal for the holy and deserving but a body broken for broken people.”
The third thing that most often comes out of our mouths has to do with repressed anger, pent-up resentment and envy. Jesus refers to a “store of evil” in the heart that can come out through one’s mouth when triggered and can overflow in an avalanche of destructive words. Jesus said it so well, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
Some people ask me why, at some point, I switched from delivering spontaneous homilies to prepared homilies that I read from the Notes of my smart phone. Those who ask, tell me, people generally prefer homilies that are delivered “off the cuff,” or extemporaneously. All seasoned public speakers will agree that a speech delivered spontaneously, or more informally is always more effective than one that is read from a prepared text. There is no doubt about that but, based on my personal experience in the past 42 years of my life as a priest, I may have been more effective without a prepared text, but I have also found myself more susceptible to what Pope Francis often warns priests about—the tendency to commit what he calls a “pulpit abuse” when we don’t prepare our homilies.
For three reasons: one, you will tend to draw satisfaction from seeing people react to what you say with amusement, with bewilderment, or with amazement, depending on the way you weave your thoughts together on the spot, such that you find yourself behaving like stand-up comedian-entertainer or one-man play actor. Two, there is the danger of turning the homily into an outlet for repressed emotions or hangups, such as when preachers use the pulpit to single out particular individuals whom the whole community might be able to identify. Three, you tend to lose track of time and begin to sound like a plane that took off but could not land anymore.
Our first reading has something wise to say about this. The author of the Book of Sirach says, “When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so, do one’s faults when one speaks.” Sometimes, when not properly disposed, you can end up saying stupid things or blurting out ridiculous thoughts. Without realizing it, you give yourself away with your words. Sirach also says “The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.” He says, “It is by their words that people are tested.”
My old Jesuit spiritual director once told me—one way of getting anger out of my system was to write a letter to that person who has made you angry, express all your raw emotions in black and white, then write your own name and address on the envelope and send it to yourself. By the time it reaches you, you would have calmed down already. It’s after the sediments in a muddy lake have settled down after being stirred up that you get to see more clearly when you swim through it. Imagine what would have happened if you had actually just blurted out those words in all their rawness. They would have instantly put an end to a precious relationship.
My Biblical model for the daily discipline of consciousness examen is Mama Mary. Luke tells us twice: “And Mary kept these things in her heart and reflected on them.” She did what I call the art of sorting out—of doing spiritual waste management, of segregating the nabubulok sa hindi nabubulok—what is worth keeping and worth disposing of, what is worth remembering and what is worth forgetting.
(Homily for the 8th Sunday in OT, 2 March 2025, Lk 6:39-42)
