A man and a lady enter a takeaway restaurant and the man orders two fried chicken dinners. The girl at the counter mistakenly gives him a bag of money, the entire day’s proceeds, instead of fried chicken. The man and woman drive to their picnic site and sit down to enjoy their chicken dinner. To their surprise, they discover that it is a bag of money, totalling almost $1,000. They put the money back in the bag, drive back to the restaurant and return the money bag to the restaurant manager. The manger is overwhelmed. He declares the man a hero and a saint. He goes to call the local press to put the story and the man’s picture in the local newspaper. “You’re the most honest man in the whole world,” says the manager. But the man would not let him call the press. Instead he leans closer and whispers in the ears of the manager, “You see, the woman I’m with is not my wife...she’s uh, somebody else’s wife.” The man might well be a hero, but he’s no saint. As James tells us in today’s second reading, true Christian holiness has as much to do with doing good to others as it has with keeping ourselves pure. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). The man scores high in honesty but very low in purity. Majority of Christians in our churches belong to one of two camps. Either they are people, like the man in the story, who score high mark in their commitment to practical justice and fairness but low in self discipline OR they are people who score high in self discipline but low in practical commitment to justice and fairness. James, the apostle of practical Christianity, teaches us that a Christian must score high marks in both practical concern for the welfare of others and self-mastery in order to be truly holy and acceptable before God. For the next four Sundays we shall be reading from the Letter of James, as he leads us to understand the importance of practical Christianity, that faith without good works is dead (James 2:17). James makes two important points in today’s reading. He teaches the importance of faith in action, and he defines for us what true devotion is. True devotion is not a matter of hearing good preaching and celebrating inspiring liturgies. Good preaching and inspiring liturgies are wonderful. Yet the litmus test of true devotion remains how we live out the word of God that we hear. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. (James 1:22-24) James uses the analogy of a man who looks in the mirror and sees his dirty face and dishevelled hair and goes away without doing anything about it. The word of God, like the mirror, shows us how dirty our faces are and how dishevelled our hair is. A wise man would immediately take steps to wash his face and shave his beards to improve his looks. That is the purpose of the mirror. Hearing the word of God alone does not make us holy. It is when we take steps to put into action what the word of God teaches us that we make progress in the journey of faith. James shows us that there are two practical ways of doing the word of God. One is in reaching out to my neighbour in need and the other is in disciplining myself and keeping myself pure. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). Next Sunday he will tell us more about reaching out to the poor. Today, he is more concerned about the need for self-discipline, especially the discipline of the tongue. James is so concerned about the crucial importance of controlling the tongue that he says categorically that, “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless” (verse 26). This would be a good place to start. We could resolve from now on to listen more and speak less. As Zeno said, “We have two ears but only one mouth, that we may hear more and speak less.”