Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another,
that you may not be judged.
We recently read a Gospel passage where Jesus told us not to judge lest we ourselves be judged. And we probably thought that we were more or less off the hook, that we weren't judgmental, and weren't in the habit of condemning others. We thought that to judge meant only the assumption that someone was acting as a willful accomplice of the powers of hell, toward which their soul was therefore headed. But in our first reading today James added a different and parallel layer, a related teaching which might bring about more conviction in us. According to James, in order to avoid judgment we must not complain about our brothers and sisters. Complaining, it turns out, is implicit judgment, either on the character of our brothers and sisters or, worse, on the character of God for allowing their presence in our lives.
You have heard of the perseverance of Job
It is one thing to bemoan difficult circumstances. The psalms give evidence that this is acceptable, as does the existence of a biblical book called Lamentations. The trouble arises when our complaints become directed and accusatory. This was exactly the temptation Job faced, voiced by his wife telling him to, "Curse God and die" (see Job 2:9), but which he admirably resisted. We too will be tempted to find someone to blame for the hardships we endure. But instead of doing so we can look to the example of the prophets, that of Job, and the other examples of the saints of the old and new covenants. If we can hold on to our belief that the Lord has a purpose in what he allows, and that said purpose stems from the reality that he himself "is compassionate and merciful" we can diffuse the temptation to blame, to point fingers, and to complain. Rather than trying to find cheap satisfaction in complaining about one another we can take responsibility for our own walk with God. We have no cause to complain when the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy and peace, are all available to us. This is not something that others control, nor a gift which God withdraws. Complaints misdirect our attention from our own need for deeper conversion. Let us stop making other people responsible for our joy when God has already made it abundantly available.
let your “Yes” mean “Yes” and your “No” mean “No,”
In not complaining about others we begin to take a baby step toward controlling our tongue and bringing it into line with God's wisdom and his plan. By not swearing rashly we take another step. We learn to speak as creatures who are contingent, who recognize that our own plans and our own wills are not absolute. The temptation is to want to be able to say more than we are qualified to say, to make assurances that we are in no position to guarantee. At the very least we must not speak as though God himself were in agreement with plans which are merely are own. When his holy name is invoked we do well to remember our own limitations, that his ways our not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. When we take oaths, then, it should only be at times of dire need, when we, our society, require God's help to ensure that the truth is spoken. Such logic characterized the oaths taken by Paul (see Galatians 1:20, Second Corinthians 1:23) and is why the Catechism still recognizes the validity of oaths in some circumstances (see CCC 2154).
Indeed, one such oath that is valid in the eyes of God and the Church is the one couples take when they are married. Living out the reality of a commitment that the hardness of fallen hearts had made impossible requires divine assistance. Merely human commitment would waver and falter in the face of circumstance and selfishness. But an oath supercharged with the promise of God's own grace would again make possible what was meant to be "from the beginning". The consequence of this was the much greater expectations for fidelity that would define marriage in the new covenant.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.
May the Lord himself help us to tame our tongues, learning to use them to bless and not to complain, to agree with his plans rather than to market our own plans to others or even to ourselves. The Sacraments are in some sense oaths, in some sense all statements that, "I will be faithful". Let these become the center from which all of our other speech issues.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
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