WORDS TELL US ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE
Father John Walsh

Words matter a lot. Words of praise can buoy a person up for days, if not weeks or months. Everyone needs to be thanked for a job well done. We all need to be recognized. Our identity is often dependent on the manner in which we are recognized. Grade school nicknames are carried by some people throughout their lives. “Oh him, he’s a clown!” “Her, she’s … you know. “ Words can shatter a person for life. In our North American culture it would appear that language is used with less and less attention being paid to the use we make of language and the effects it has on people. Off-handed comments are often passed on unwittingly, and, very quickly, they take on a completely different meaning and have an unintended damaging effect. In a society where we spend many hours on our “devices” we have become less literate and less articulate. Words are brandished about without any respect for their actual meaning. The Scriptures remind us: it is not what goes into the mouth that counts, but what comes out of the mouth is what counts. We build a culture through the use of words. Words are our means of communication with each other and it is our everyday conversations that create the world in which we live. We are ready to speak out and express our opinions (and convictions) endlessly without ever “hearing’ what our partners in the discussion have just said. We are losing the art of listening. It is when we recognize our own ignorance that we will have the need to listen to others. The art of listening is how we learn. We must listen before we speak; we must learn before we teach.

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