Our culture uses a lot of funny words. Words are powerful things. I think back to a quote from Harry Potter, “Words
are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.
Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it,” I am amazed at how
powerful and true this lesson is for young children to learn. It is also very important for adults, too.
As a kid, I remember learning the lesson that “if you can’t
something nice, don’t say nothing at all” (Bambi).
While there’s some goodness in that (like, don’t gossip),
this is not a biblical concept. Yes, I
know, Bambi was not trying to be biblical, but I think that many Christians
have adopted this a value to strive for and live by, and it’s just not entirely
accurate. Scripture, on the other hand,
says,
“Nice” is not always “Helpful.” In fact, when people focus on saying “nice”
things, they often end up saying lies.
There’s nothing good or holy about lies.
I have spent a lot of time bottling up things that I should
have/needed to say, simply because they weren’t “nice.” And it’s always caused me a lot of
frustration and pain. However, on the
contrary, I have also spent a lot of time using mean words. Cruel words.
Hurtful and harmful words. That
is also not good or holy. The temptation
when trying to fix a problem in our lives is for us to swing from one extreme
to another, and that is rarely (if ever) a good solution.
Our society uses funny words. And the words that people use these days are
not only powerful in their meanings and implications, they are dangerous and
taken out of context. And it breaks my
heart to see people use their words so irresponsibly. I, as a devout Catholic, have felt the sting
of words such as “homophobic,” “intolerant,” “hateful,” “stupid,” “ignorant,” “old-fashioned,”
“irrelevant,” or “evil.” They throw out the prefix "pro" or "anti" like it's going out of style (but, on the contrary, it is VERY stylish). People have
been making claims that my kind (as in, devout Catholics) are “anti” love,
which, in turn, makes them “pro” love?
It’s all very confusing and convoluted.
For several months now, I sat back and just watched
people’s reactions to gay marriage, to Planned Parenthood scandals, to lion’s
being killed, to confederate flags being flown, to people being martyred for
their faith in other parts of the world.
I have been too scared, confused, and careful to respond to these
things. People have had such violent and
aggressive reactions to these things, and they use their words, often to
express holy ideas, but in unholy ways.
For the next several weeks, I am going to be addressing some
of these issues, both to address the ideas that are, in fact, truthful, but
also to help Catholics do a better job of using their words to be holy.
Remember, Jesus is the word of God. Words are powerful. Use your words to glorify God, to live love,
to be humble and to bless others.
Sometimes those things aren’t nice (although sometimes they are), but
they are NEVER mean.
