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What is a “word”? Is it only a symbolic reference? Is it, when spoken, just some arbitrary sound we make, a noise to which we attach a meaning that we could have attached otherwise? Is “dog” something we made up? Or is “dog-ness” something substantial - something really real? There is something about all of this that intrigues us. It bewilders and entices both imagination and intellect.
When I speak I use words. I use bodily mechanisms to deliberately communicate to others. I ask for things. I ask questions. I share details about my life, my hopes, my intentions. In all of this I speak my words with breath. I, in essence, breathe the words out from within myself. I express my innermost being - my mind and my heart. I cannot but give something of the person I am when I speak words.
Each word I speak or write down is like a seed. The human sower sows a true seed when he speaks. Nothing I say is without consequence. If I speak words of holiness, truth, goodness, or beauty I will be contributing to a rich harvest one day, whether or not I am ever aware of it. Likewise seeds of pride, doubt, fear, cruelty and the like can never yield anything but despair and emptiness. Our words matter. All words matter. Why? Because The Word matters!
On the Breath of the Holy Spirit, the Father breathes his Eternal Word, his Son. As Saint John of the Cross said: “In giving us his Son, his only Word (for He possesses no other), God the Father spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and he has no more to say.” (Ascent of Mount Carmel (1579). He holds absolutely nothing back when he speaks. God’s word goes all the way out and down and beyond. He never takes back his word, for it is final. The Son is the Father’s first, last, and only Word.
How well do we understand what this means for us? We are made in God’s “image and likeness.” In other words, we are made to reflect the Trinity in this world. How would I speak if I were aware of what my “word” communicates about me? Words, by nature, go out. They cannot be caught or retracted or caged once spoken. We can never truly take back what we say, and the seeds of our words fall into the soil to be watered and eventually harvested, one way or another.
When I curse my brother, I sow hatred. When I praise the One God, I sow truth in love. When I gossip, I sow seeds that will yield a crop of bitterness and disunity. When I sacrifice anything for one whom I love, I sow seeds that will lead to a crop joy and unity. What seeds are you sowing with your words these days? It's worth a look...
