What Was That You Said?
Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
My dear encountered couples:
Have you ever said something about somebody which got home to them? Or made a remark that they overheard you saying? That can be very embarrassing. It possibly has happened to many of us. Matthew in his gospel tells us it happened to the Pharisees at a dinner party he was giving for Jesus.
“While Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and those known as sinners came to join Jesus and his disciples at dinner. The Pharisees saw this and complained to his disciples, ‘What reason can the Teacher have for eating with tax collectors and those who disregard the law?’ Overhearing the remark, Jesus said: ‘People who are in good health do not need a doctor; sick people do.’” I’d like to have seen the surprise on those Pharisees’ faces when they found out Jesus heard what they said. He hears what we say too! God hears our every word.
If ever we make an unkind remark, a sarcastic comment, an off-the-cuff statement about somebody, God hears us. Whether we whisper it, whether we say it in a crowded, noisy hail, or in the privacy of a soundproof room, God hears us. No word we say goes unheard or unnoticed. Will the world someday hears all our remarks? May God forbid!
It is not the comments we make, though, that should be our greatest concern; it is the reason and the attitudes we have when saying them. It is the harm and the hurt we might intend to inflict on those we are putting down. Did the Pharisees often make disparaging remarks about people? Do we?
