8C19. Sirach 27:4-7. The Book of Sirach is one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament. This wisdom helps us to see as the Lord sees and not be blinded or misguided by the way the world sees that makes what is bad to appear desirable and acceptable. What we say reveals what we think, what the mind sees or believes to be the truth or reality. Our reading says, “So too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.”

Luke 6:39-45. Jesus saw that all too often people criticized others but that they were guilty of far worse, showing that they were blind to their own guilt. It is only natural to show partiality in judging ourselves generously and others overbearingly and negatively. It is only by living our lives the God who sees fully and truly, can we be just as God is just. Jesus says in our reading, “For every tree is known by its own fruits.” Later in the text he says, “For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” What is the life or life-giving force of our hearts? What fills our hearts that shows itself in our words, actions, emotions, facial expressions and attitudes? Growing in communion with God whose Body we eat and whose Blood we drink makes Jesus the life of our hearts. Living Jesus as the life of our hearts, begging him to be the Lord of our hearts, Jesus, with us working alongside of him, cultivates us to become the good tree bearing only good fruit. What joy it brings to grow more and more in the Lord!

1 Corinthians 15:54-58. What we cannot do God can. Sin and death have been crushed through Christ. “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Know “that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”