Verbal melamine

WE are now sadly exposed to the fact that some food products are mixed with fillers and extenders that are not anymore safe and legit but are actually toxic and harmful to us. They have gone beyond standard food and drugs limits.

The Chinese melamine-diluted milk illustrates this well. I’ve always thought that melamine is used to make beautiful plates, bowls and other table wares. But to put it into dairy products is definitely an improper and immoral transposition. It’s pure and simple cheating with deadly effects!

There’s another melamine affair that we ought to be more aware of and more determined to eliminate, since not only is it septic but is also more widespread and common.

This is the verbal melamine, both written and oral, infesting our media and, worse, in our ordinary day-to-day communication. This affects not only children, who can easily be excused for indulging in it, but rather adults, us, who are supposed to know and behave better.

Gossiping, tactless speech and writing, backbiting, empty inane conversations, pure loquacity and verbal diarrhea pollute our environment. Daily we get a carpet-bombing of these things. Sometimes I get the impression that we have become a swarm of noisy, quacking and clacking ducks.

There are other worse forms, like irresponsible journalism, reckless politically partisan tirades and fiery barbs, shameless propaganda and commercial adverts, self-obsessed and self-absorbed celebrity talks, etc.

Remove the glitter and the glamour, the fire and the thunder, the hype and spin, and we would have as bare bones nothing more than fishwives’ tales—all myths and legends with hardly any objective relevance to our life. What remains is the language of the world’s foolishness. “O vanity of vanities…”

Even some Church publications are not exempted from this danger. Sometimes I get the aftertaste that I’m reading highly ideological, as in leftist or rightist, views even from bishops and priests, and other self-righteous claims when I go through some of these papers.

The root cause is that our capacity to talk, write and communicate has been detached from its proper foundation. It is simply made to serve whatever comes to mind, whatever has become socially and politically correct, without giving due attention to its proper moorings.

We have forgotten that words reveal the kind of persons we are, whether we consider ourselves still as children of God or we have become our own persons exclusively.

Words make and unmake us. They can edify us or destroy us. Remember St. James: “The tongue no man can tame…By it we bless God…and by it we curse men…Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing…” (3,8-10)

The root cause is that we alienate ourselves from God. Many of us have lost the taste for God. We simply go by what our senses lead us, or at best what our reasoning make us understand. We forget God’s word, which has become foreign to us. It’s supposed to be the pattern and power of our own words.

This frame of mind is unfortunately now being reinforced and supported by a growing culture that’s becoming more and more secularized, paganized and Godless. In fact, in many sectors, any talk about God is ridiculed.

Let’s go back to basics. For those who are still Christian believers and desire to be consistently so, let’s listen to St. Paul.

“Other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid, Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man’s work shall be manifest, for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire.

“The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abides, which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss…” (1 Cor 3,11-15)

I wonder if there’s any earnest effort to ground and inspire our ideas, words and deeds on Christ. This requirement, I’m afraid, has been heavily overlaid and covered by other mundane considerations that practically annul it.

Is there anyone listening? Well, we can only hope and pray. We can do certain things to correct the situation, but we have to entrust everything in God’s hands for some urgent and deep changes to take place.