“O generation of vipers, how can you speak good things, whereas you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of a good treasure bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of an evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Jesus then, to shake the Pharisees out of their comfort that they may be startled into listening calls them a generation of vipers. The reason for their comfort was in their lineage: “And think not to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’” (Matthew 3:9), and God does not look at the grandness of one’s lineage, but on the love that one cultivates in their hearts and then gives to others: “Who will render to every man according to his works” (Romans 2:6). Without love in the heart, it is too difficult to expect to speak words of love in truth: “Who will honour him that dishonoureth his own soul?” (Ecclesiasticus 10:32) with a loveless heart. Your soul is a garden, to be watered with love: “Their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall be hungry no more” (Jeremias 31:12), thus why the Psalms describe the just man, or the one that loves, as “a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season” (Psalm 1:3). This can only be done by giving Jesus open access to walk freely within your heart and mind: “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat the fruit of his apple trees” (Canticle 5:1), and letting Him fashion a love-shaped interior life for you: “Unless the Lord build the house” of your heart, “they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 126:1). When you let the Lord plant flowers and allow them to grow, “The flowers have appeared in our land” (Canticle 2:12), the fragrance of your love becomes tangible to others: “Spikenard and saffron, sweet cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of Libanus, myrrh and aloes with all the chief perfumes” (Canticle 4:14). Your heart, at peace, confident, and gentle, then becomes a sanctuary in which other hearts can bloom: “The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise” (Isaias 35:1-2), because when someone sees you at peace, and know that they are in safe hands that will love them, they can let themselves be themselves. This is not the case with those with malice towards God, themselves, or others: “Not so the wicked, not so” (Psalm 1:4), because in the presence of hate, the heart recoils. Now, when your heart is filled with divine love: “The midst he covered with love for the daughters of Jerusalem” (Canticle 3:10), it loves naturally, and so out of an abundance of love it speaks words of love: “Thy lips are as a scarlet lace: and thy speech sweet” (Canticle 4:3), but a heart bound up in malice brings forth unkindness: “But that which bringeth forth thorns and briers, is reprobate, and very near unto a curse, whose end is to be burnt” (Hebrews 6:8). Furthermore, one speaks on what one loves, just as a lover speaks on one’s beloved, and when this is about oneself, one’s things, affairs of the world, it shows where one’s love is, but when this is about the Beloved: “Let the thought of God be in thy mind, and all thy discourse on the commandments of the Highest” (Ecclesiasticus 9:23), it shows a deep love of God. Or, this can be to speak little and hear another with love, care, and attentiveness: “Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger” (James 1:19). Your words are precious gems: “By [the tongue] we bless God and the Father” (James 3:9), meant for praise and love, to soothe, encourage, and teach: “Well ordered words are as a honeycomb: sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24), not for detracting or idleness: “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (James 3:10). This is also helpful for one’s own interior life, for the one that is ardently pursuing God in truth: “I have no greater grace than this, to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4), the voice that makes your heart bristle and tense is not God’s voice: “But a stranger they follow not, but fly from him, because they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5); “Their heart is curdled like milk” (Psalm 118:70). Rather, His voice is peaceful, calm, gentle, and overflowing with affection: “My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27); “His throat most sweet, and he is all lovely” (Canticle 5:16); “How sweet are thy words to my palate! More than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 118:103). The Sacred Heart is a palace of love, and can only bring forth words of love, for this is the divine nature. Because of this magnificent dignity placed upon the words one says, and how by words hearts are known: “As the faces of them that look therein, shine in the water, so the hearts of men are laid open to the wise” (Proverbs 27:19), Jesus warns that against words that fall outside of this dignity, “Let all things be done to edification” (1 Corinthians 14:26) is of spiritual danger: “In the multitude of words there shall not want sin: but he that refraineth his lips is most wise” (Proverbs 10:19). Now, “this saying is hard, and who can hear it?” (John 6:61), but it is love’s natural course, Theophila, to think only on the beloved and the love one has for them, with a distaste for all that does not involve them: “Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?” (Canticle 3:3), thus words about frivolous things, silliness, old fables, or anything shameful are not only not worth your Christian dignity: “Clothe thyself with beauty, and set thyself up on high, and be glorious, and put on goodly garments” (Job 40:5), but draw your mind from your Beloved, which should be distressing to the one madly in love: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish with love” (Canticle 5:8). Despite the fact that “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (James 3:6), to let love master it is a magnificent sentence, for it is not in the words spoken about you or to you that defines your beauty, but in the love with which you speak. Thus, when your every word brims with love, it is a great testament to your heart, for “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man” (James 3:2). To be accused is nothing, but to accuse is contrary to love: “Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one to another” (Ephesians 4:31-32). Therefore, be filled with words of love, Theophila, internally and externally, that you may lay beautiful flowers of love and peace on the souls of those you encounter: “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the friends hearken: make me hear thy voice” (Canticle 8:13).