Do you ever feel that people talk too much? Many of us do for it is so much easier to talk than to act. Talking as a means of self-expression or as a way of getting things off your chest or for the purpose of learning can certainly be beneficial. But, talk for the sake of talk doesn’t amount to much good. Such kind of talk is cheap. That is why Jesus says to His followers, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11 : 28).

Television shows feature expert communicators who can talk about hunger without ever feeding anyone or who can talk about ending war without ever using their influence to change national policies that lead to war. How people love to talk about family life, about raising children, about being religious, about peace and about the best ways for husbands and wives to get along together! Yet, all the talk in the world rarely accomplishes anything of lasting value. This is a hard-nosed message. Let’s stop talking, and start doing something about our problems.

Jesus’ parable about the end of time in Matthew 25 has always fascinated his followers. In that parable, He commends those who did good works like feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and condemns those who failed to do these things. There is no word of blessing for those who said they were going to act but did not, no word of forgiveness for those who did the planning or talked about the problem or studied the reasons behind the hunger of their time. The only thing that Jesus blessed was right action. Today, our bureaucracies have study-programs and more study-programs, yet little is ever done. It is so much easier to talk about overcoming evil than to get out there and do something about it.

The greatest heroes in the early church were the martyrs. These were the witnesses to the truth of Jesus by what they did. They put their lives on the line and acted out Jesus’ commandment of love. They called themselves “people of the way.” Christians were to live their lives as Jesus had commanded. Let others theorize as much as they wanted, they were simple people with few words and little theoretical background. They knew what Jesus expected of them and they did it as a matter of duty in their everyday lives and surroundings.

St. Thomas Aquinas was, many believe, the greatest of the Catholic theologians. He wrote volumes of the most erudite Christian thinking that the church had ever seen. He was celebrated not only as a scholar but as a poet, too, for he wrote memorable verse that is still used in the Church’s liturgy today. Toward the end of his life, he is said to have pointed to all his books and remarked to an assistant: “This is all straw, nothing but straw.”

By this he meant that, in comparison with living out the message of the Gospel, words are mere straw. Talk is cheap!

Christian experience is the primary language of the Gospel. That is why Jesus says: “when you have done all you have been told to do, say: we have only done our duty” (Gospel of Luke 17 : 10).

—Fr. Hugh Duffy.