Simple Speech

Gospel: Matthew 5: 33-37

Jesus' injunction against taking oaths is just simple common sense.  Consider: in making oaths we are telling people that this class of speech is sacrosanct and always truthful.  Fine.  But what does that say about the rest of our speech?  In creating a special class of speech that is, allegedly, unimpeachable, we are in effect saying that other speech we make is not so, or that our ordinary speech need not be so.  We do similar things with people, land, and other places - some is holy, implying others are not.

But Jesus wants us to have a complete life of integrity and authenticity.  All of our speech should be truthful and trustworthy.  All people are holy because all are made in God's image.  All places are holy because God made the entire universe.  Every moment of our existence is an encounter with God in the person of others and in all places for there is no place where God does not dwell.  Our relationships and our speech should have simple integrity marked by truth at all times.

Jesus lived this simple truth in his own life.  His speech was simple and plain as we have seen so far in his teaching on the law.  It is we human beings who make things complex and confuse our speech because we want to live self-interested lives while appearing that we are not.  Jesus calls us to a life dedicated to the care of others, not ourselves.  Let our speech reflect this simple life of humble service at all times.