Vice of speaking immodestly
“He touched his tongue,…and the string of his tongue was loosed.”—Mark 7:33, 35
In this day’s gospel St. Mark relates the miracle which our Savior worked when he healed the man who was dumb by merely touching his tongue. “He touched his tongue and the string of his tongue was loosed.” From these last words we may gather that the man was not entirely dumb, but that his tongue was impeded, or that he could not pronounce his words clearly. And so St. Mark adds that after the miracle he spoke plainly.
Let us apply this to ourselves. This man needed a miracle to loose his tongue and to remove the impediment that bound it. But how many are there to whom God would grant a great grace, if he bound their tongues, so that they might cease to speak immodestly! Whoever has this vice does great injury to others, and, secondly, does great injury to himself. These shall be the two points of this sermon.
First Point.—He who speaks immodestly does great injury to others who listen to him.
1. St. Augustine calls those who speak in this way “the Mediators of Satan,” the go-betweens of Lucifer; because, where the devil himself cannot reach by his own suggestions, they reach by the obscene words they speak. Of such accursed tongues St. James says: “And the tongue is a fire,…being set on fire by hell” (Jas. 3:6). He calls it a fire, a fire kindled by hell, with which whoever speaks obscenely burns both himself and others.
This, we may say, is the tongue of the third person, of which Ecclesiasticus speaks: “The tongue of a third person hath disquieted many, and scattered them from nation to nation” (Ecclus. 28:16). The spiritual tongue is the one that speaks of God; the worldly tongue is the one that speaks of the affairs of the world; but there is a third tongue, which is the tongue of hell, that speaks of the filth of the flesh, and this is the tongue that perverts many and brings them to perdition.
2. Speaking of the life of men on this earth, the Royal Prophet says: “Let their way become dark and slippery” (Ps. 35:6). The man who is alive walks in the midst of darkness and along a slippery road, and so he is in danger of falling at every step he takes, unless he uses every caution to watch where he sets his feet and to avoid the dangerous steps, which are the occasions of sin. Now, if along this slippery road there were someone pushing him to make him fall, it would be a miracle if he did not go down.
This is exactly what those go-betweens of the devil do who speak obscenely: they push others to sin, others who, as long as they live on this earth, walk in the midst of darkness, and who, being of flesh, are easily brought to fall into this vice. Now, of such foul-mouthed men it is rightly said: “Their throat is an open sepulchre” (Ps. 5:11). The mouths of those who can speak of nothing but filth are, says St. John Chrysostom, so many open graves of putrefied corpses. Talia sunt ora hominum qui turpia proferunt—“Such are the mouths of men who utter foul things” (Hom. 2, de Proph. Obs.). The breath that rises from the rottenness of bodies heaped together in a pit sickens and infects all who smell the stench.
3. “The stroke of a whip,” says Ecclesiasticus, “maketh a blue mark; but the stroke of a tongue will break the bones” (Ecclus. 28:21). The wounds made by the lash wound the flesh; but the wounds made by obscene tongues are wounds that infect even the bones of those who listen to them. St. Bernardino of Siena relates that a virgin who led a holy life, on hearing an obscene word from a young man, fell into evil thoughts, and afterward abandoned herself so completely to the vice of impurity that, the saint says, if the devil had taken human flesh, he could not have committed so many sins of that kind as she committed.
4. The worst of it is that these mouths of hell, which so often speak immodest words, count them as nothing and rarely confess them; and when the confessor rebukes them, they answer: “But I say these things in jest, without malice.” In jest? Poor man, this jest makes the devil laugh, and shall make you weep for all eternity in hell. In the first place, it is no use to say that you say them without malice; for when you utter such words, it is very difficult for you not to fall into acts of this vice, as St. Jerome writes: “He that delights in words is not far from the act.” Besides, when one speaks in this way before persons of a different sex, sinful pleasure is always present as well. And then, is not the scandal you give to others a sin? You will utter a single obscene word, and in that moment you will bring into sin all who listen to you. So says St. Bernard: “One speaks, and he utters only one word; and yet he kills the souls of a multitude of hearers” (Sermon 24 on the Canticles). A greater sin than if with one shot of a blunderbuss you killed many persons; for then you would kill their bodies, but by speaking obscenely you kill their souls.
5. In a word, these foul-mouthed men are the ruin of the world. A single one of them does more harm than a hundred devils, since he is the cause of the ruin of many souls. This is not my saying; it is the saying of the Holy Spirit: “A slippery mouth worketh ruin” (Prov. 26:28). And when is it that this ruin is wrought, and so many offenses are committed against God? When God does us the most good. When does God do us the most good? I speak of temporal blessings: in the time of summer, when he provides us for the whole year with grain, wine, oil, vegetables, and other fruits. And when are the most sins committed in the country? When the harvest is reaped, when the grain is threshed, when the grapes are gathered, when the maize is husked, when the chestnuts and the olives are brought in, and the like; for then, by these obscene words that are commonly spoken, more sins are committed than there are grains of wheat or clusters of grapes.
Oh, ingratitude! And how does God bear with us? And who is the cause of these sins? Those who speak foully; and so they must render an account to God, and shall be punished for all the sins committed by those who hear them. “But I will require his blood at thy hand” (Ezek. 3:18). But let us pass on to the second point.
Second Point.—He who speaks immodestly does great injury to himself.
6. A young man may say: “But I speak without malice.” To this excuse I have already answered in the first point, that it is very difficult for a man to speak coarse words and not take pleasure in them; especially when he speaks before unmarried girls and young married women, a secret pleasure in what he says is always present. Besides, by speaking in this way he puts himself in proximate danger of sinning by act, as St. Jerome says, as I have already mentioned: “He who delights in words is not far from the act.”
Every man is inclined to evil: “The imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil” (Gen. 8:21). And above all, man is drawn to the vice of impurity, to which nature itself inclines him. And so St. Augustine said that in this kind of combat—speaking at least of those who do not use every caution—“the victory is rare.” Communis pugna et rara victoria—“The fight is common and the victory rare.” Now, whoever freely speaks obscene words always has present to his mind those impure things he names; and these stir up sinful pleasure, and bring him to fall first into evil desires and morose delights, and then easily into acts. Behold the consequence for the man who speaks foully, and then says: “I speak without malice.”
7. The Holy Spirit warns us: “Be not taken in thy tongue” (Ecclus. 5:16). Take heed that you do not forge with your tongue a chain that will drag you to hell, for St. James writes: “The tongue…defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity” (Jas. 3:6). The tongue is one of the members of the body; but when it speaks evil it infects the whole body, and “inflames the wheel of our nativity”—which means that it inflames and corrupts our entire life from birth to old age. And so we see that these foul talkers, even when they are old, cannot abstain from speaking obscenely.
Surius relates, in the life of St. Valerius, that the saint, being on a journey, entered a house to shelter himself from the cold; and there, listening to what the master of the house was saying with the judge of the district, he heard that they were speaking of obscene things, though both were well advanced in years. The saint reproved them sharply, but they paid no heed to him. God, however, punished them both: one became blind, and the other was struck with a sore that made him feel the pangs of death. Henry Gragerman relates further (Great Mirror, dist. 9, ex. 58) that one of these obscene talkers died suddenly and impenitent, and was afterward seen in hell tearing his tongue to pieces; and when it grew back again, he returned to tearing it.
8. But how can God have mercy on him who has no mercy on the souls of his neighbors? “Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy” (Jas. 2:13). What a pity it is, at times, to see young men, married women, and unmarried girls all together, and one of these foul-mouthed wretches among them! The more there are to hear him, the more he gives himself to speaking immodestly. Often, too, there are little boys and girls present, innocent souls, and he has no horror of scandalizing them.
Thomas of Cantimpré relates that the son of a certain nobleman in Burgundy, given to the monks of Cluny to be educated, was an angel of purity; but this poor boy went one day into a carpenter’s shop, and through the obscene words spoken by the carpenter’s wife, fell into sin and lost the divine grace. Father Sabatino, in his work entitled Evangelical Light, relates of another boy, fifteen years old, who, having heard an immodest word, dwelt upon it the following night, consented to an evil thought, and that same night died suddenly. His confessor, learning of his death, wished to say a Mass for him; but the soul of the unhappy boy appeared to him and told him not to celebrate for him, because he was damned on account of that evil word, and that to celebrate would only add to his pains.
Oh, God, how the guardian angels of those poor children, scandalized and lost through the words of some foul tongue, would weep, were it in their power to weep! And how they shall cry to God for vengeance! This is exactly what those words of Jesus Christ mean: “See that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father” (Matt. 18:10).
9. Be attentive, then, my brethren, and guard yourselves against speaking immodestly more than against death itself. Hear what the Holy Spirit exhorts you to do: “Make a balance for thy words, and a just bridle for thy mouth; and take heed lest thou slip with thy tongue—and thy fall be incurable unto death” (Ecclus. 28:29, 30). He says, “Make a balance”—which means that you must weigh your words before you speak them—and “a bridle for thy mouth”—which means that when foul words come to your mouth, you must shut the way against them; otherwise, by uttering them, you will inflict on your own soul and on the souls of others a wound that shall be mortal and incurable.
God has given you the tongue, not to offend him, but to praise and bless him. St. Paul says: “But fornication and all uncleanness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints” (Eph. 5:3). Mark the words “all uncleanness.” We must guard ourselves not only against obscene words and every word of double meaning spoken in jest—noting that immodest double meanings sometimes do more harm than open obscenities, because they make a deeper impression through the cleverness with which they are spoken—but also against every immodest word that does not become saints, that is, Christians, as St. Paul intends.
10. Reflect, says St. Augustine, that your mouths are the mouths of Christians, which Jesus Christ has so often entered in Holy Communion; and so you ought to abhor uttering every lustful word, which is a diabolical poison. “See, brethren, if it be just that, from the mouths of Christians, which the body of Christ enters, a lustful song, like the poison of the devil, should proceed” (Sermon 15 on Time). St. Paul writes that the speech of a Christian should always be seasoned with salt: “Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6)—seasoned, that is, with some word of God that may move others not to offend him, but to love him.
“Happy the tongue,” writes St. Bernard, “that knows only how to weave its speech of holy things!” Happy the tongue that knows only how to speak of God! And not only guard yourselves, beloved, against speaking immodestly, but also flee, as you would the plague, from those who speak in this way. When you hear someone begin such talk, follow the advice of the Holy Spirit: “Hedge in thy ears with thorns: hear not a wicked tongue” (Ecclus. 28:28). He says, “Hedge in thy ears with thorns”—show yourself thorny, that is, reprove with warmth the man who speaks in this way; at least turn away your face and show that such talk displeases you. Let us not be ashamed to appear followers of Jesus Christ, unless we wish Jesus Christ to be ashamed afterward to keep us with him in paradise.
Points for Reflection
1. “Make a balance for thy words, and a just bridle for thy mouth; and take heed lest thou slip with thy tongue—and thy fall be incurable unto death” (§9)
2. “God has given you the tongue, not to offend him, but to praise and bless him” (§9)
3. “Not only guard yourselves against speaking immodestly, but also flee, as you would the plague, from those who speak in this way” (§10)