Handling the word

We have to learn how to handle words. It’s a most delicate task. We are given an idea of its brittleness in these words of St. James about our tongue: “The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasts great things. Behold how small a fire kindles a great wood. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity...” (3,5-6) So, we need to be most careful when using them.

 For sure, words are not just a group of letters. They have a meaning, they transmit concepts, judgments and reasoning. They are dead unless picked up by us and enlivened by our will, desires and purposes. That’s when they can be good or bad, useful or useless, constructive or destructive, meaningful or empty, moral or immoral, etc.

 They depend on how we use them, on what intention we have. They can have either the divisive Tower-of-Babel consequence or the unitive Pentecost effect. Words are a vital part of our dynamic life. They both reflect and build up the kind of life we have. Thus, they are a powerful part of our life.

 We just have to realize more deeply and more abidingly that our words need to be properly grounded and oriented, since in the end, words have their proper origin and purpose. They just did not spring spontaneously and on their own. Neither are they purely of our own making.

 And this origin and purpose can only be God, whose Word is responsible for the creation and governance of the whole universe. “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord God.” (Rev 1,8)

 This is something that might still jolt us, since the common understanding is that words are just our pure invention. Not so! We have to correct that erroneous mindset, which might take quite an effort not only in the personal level, but more so in social and cultural level.

 Realizing this fundamental character of words, we then should realize that we need to relate our words with God. We just cannot be plain users of theirs without connecting them to God.  This is when we can truly internalize and assimilate them to our soul, making them an organic part of our identity. This is when we would really know who we are, that we are first of all creatures of God, who have been made children of his, and expected to participate in the very life and action of God.

 God’s Word is therefore the origin and end of our words. It’s a powerful word that can give tremendous and radical changes. In the gospel there’s a reference to this fact when the people got amazed with Christ’s words. “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” (Lk 4,36)

 Of course, in the Letter to the Hebrews, we are given a more intimate view of the character of God’s word: “The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (4,12)

 These words should make us realize that God’s word is what really would guide us in the way of we use words. Meditating on God’s word is therefore a must. Relating it to our communications and our affairs, and vice-versa, is also a must. We have to quit the practice of using words without relating them to God’s word.

 That attitude and habit may lead us to some dark areas, since God’s word is full of mysteries. But at least such attitude and habit would make us humble, cautious, prudent, tactful, courteous and always charitable. We would avoid being reckless.

 When we use words with charity, then our communications would have those qualities described by St. Paul: patient, kind, envy not, deal not perversely, not puffed up, not ambitious, seek not their own, not provoked to anger, think no evil, rejoice not in iniquity but in the truth, bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. (cfr 1 Cor 13,4-7)

Let’s remember always that our words should not just be a tool of our reason and feelings alone. That would lead us to situations prone to a lot of dangers—conflicts, anger, hatred, etc. They have to spring from our faith and charity, where our words would have their most proper context.