Posted on 07/13/2013 5:39:18 AM PDT by haffast
Catholics must “watch their tongues” and resist the temptation to resolve disputes with “insults, slander, and defamation,” Pope Francis has said.
Delivering a homily at morning Mass on Thursday, which was attended by men and women who work at Argentina’s embassies and consulates to Italy and the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome, the Pope said: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle others, to feel more important.
“Jesus, with all the simplicity says: ‘Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another. Do not belittle one another’.”
The Pope went to say that “in the end we are all travelling on the same road that will take us to the very end,” before adding, “if we do not choose a fraternal path, it will end badly, for the person who insults and the insulted. If we are not able to keep our tongues in check, we lose.”
Pope Francis concluded: “I would ask the Lord to give us all the grace to watch our tongues, to watch what we say about others. It is a small penance, but it bears a lot of fruit.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Its not just Catholics who need to do this.
Sins of speech are the easiest to commit but great good can also be done through speech.
Agreed.
(Vatican Radio) May the Lord grant us the grace to watch our tongues and be careful of what we say of others, because through our weakness and sin, we often find it easier to insult and denigrate than say or do good. This was the lesson at the heart of Pope Francis’ homily Thursday morning at Mass, which he celebrated in his native Spanish. Greeting the men and women who work at Argentina’s embassies and consulates to Italy and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, Pope Francis noted “It’s the first time I have celebrated Mass in Spanish since February 26th!, adding “it feels good!”.
As is tradition, Pope Francis’ homily was inspired by the Gospel of the day, in particular Christ’s words to his disciples "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven."
The Pope noted how this Gospel follows the Gospel of the Beatitudes and Jesus promise that He had not come to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. Pope Francis said that Christ wants “reform in continuity: from the [planting of the ] seed up to the fruit”.
Pope Francis warned that anyone who "enters Christian life" will have “greater demands made of them than others" and not “greater advantages". He said Jesus mentions some of these demands, in particular the problem of “bad relations among brethren". If our heart harbors “bad feelings” towards our brothers, the Pope said, "something is not working and we must convert, we must change." Pope Francis noted that "anger towards a brother is an insult, it’s something almost deathly ", "it kills him." He then observed that, especially in the Latin tradition, there is a "wonderful creativity" in inventing epithets. But, he cautioned, "when this epithet is friendly this is fine, the problem is when there is another kind of epithet”, when the "mechanism of insult" comes into play, which is "a form of denigration of others."
“Y no hace falta ir al psicologo...”
Pope Francis continued: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle others, to feel more important." This, he said, is "an ugly mechanism". Jesus, "with all the simplicity says: "Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another. Do not belittle one another”. The Pope noted, "in the end we are all travelling on the same road", "we are all travelling on that road that will take us to the very end." Therefore "if we do not choose a fraternal path, it will end badly, for the person who insults and the insulted". The Pope noted that "if we are not able to keep our tongues in check, we lose”. “Natural aggression, that of Cain toward Abel, repeats itself throughout history." Pope Francis observed that it is not that we are bad, rather "we are weak and sinners." That's why it is "much easier", to "resolve a situation with an insult, with slander, defamation instead of resolving it with good means".
“Yo quisiera pedir al Señor que...”
Pope Francis concluded: “I would ask the Lord to give us all the grace to watch our tongues, to watch what we say about others." “It is a small penance - he added - but it bears a lot of fruit." "Sometimes, we go hungry and think, ‘What a pity I didn’t taste the fruit of a tasty comment against another person." But, he said, "that hunger bears fruit in the long run is good for us." That's why we ask the Lord for this grace: to adapt our lives "to this new law, which is the law of meekness, the law of love, the law of peace, and at least 'prune' our tongues a little, ‘prune’ the comments that we make of others and outbursts that lead us to an easy anger or insult. May the Lord grant us all this grace".
FR Thread: Pope at Mass: The grace not to speak ill of others
I thought this was an old homily. It looks as though he didn’t direct it towards Catholics solely.
Sins of speech are killing us in the political arena as well. Speaking the truth can be a sin of speech if we don’t use tact to avoid unnecessary insults. (I’m certainly not innocent)
Washington’s rules of civility include several rules dealing with avoiding unnecessary insults of people we may not personally think are worthy of much respect. He understood that you just don’t get anywhere by inspiring anger. Reagan seems to have known this too.
bookmark
I'm not sure if I agree here, however it seems to be a modern virtue to tell lies to avoid offending anyone.
Psalm 50:23
“Conversation” in Elizabethan English means “conduct, whole way of life,” not just “verbal discussion”. Of course, how you talk about e.g. others is part of “conduct”.
“Conversation” in Elizabethan English means
“conduct, whole way of life,”
not just “verbal discussion”
—I was just reading this in the discussion threads on this verse
Its called tact and it doesn’t require lying.
Its the difference between saying “You’re an idiot” and saying “I don’t think you grasp what I’m saying”.
“Thursday, June 13.” For those of you in other time zones, that’s a month ago.
“the Pope said: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle others, to feel more important. “
Pope denigrates others as being childish, hides behind rhetorical use of “we.”
**“Jesus, with all the simplicity says: ‘Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another. Do not belittle one another’.”**
Now if we could all take a lesson from this.
This thread's header as posted:
Catholics must ‘watch their tongues’, says Pope
Catholic Herald ^ | Thursday, 13 June 2013 | Staff Reporter
Posted on Saturday, July 13, 2013 8:39:18 AM by haffast
Thank-you for making things clearer.
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