Reflection - Words

By Steve Hall

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061122.cfm
Acts 11:21-26, 12:1-3
Matthew 5:33-37

Lawyers have been around for a long time. Because of availability or financial resources, however, their services were not always available to everyone. In times when contracts or agreements could not be assured by the law, men resorted to more fundamental forms of agreement. Thus the phrase: “My word is my bond.”

The phrase carried strong implications. If elaborated, we would find numerous equivalents. My word is my contract. My word is my covenant, my guarantee, my surety, my warranty of fulfillment. One’s word was sacred, to be guarded and protected. It was revered as expressive of the very person who uttered it.

By in large, this form of human interaction has given way to paper documents, courts, lawyers and legal enforcement. A new phrase has become more common: “Actions speak louder than words.” We hear the phrase often enough; but is it true?

Some years ago a rock group called the BeeGees sang a song about words: “It’s only Words, but Words are all I have to take your heart away.” In more recent times the score for a stage musical contained the following: “No matter what they tell us; No matter what they do; No matter what they teach us; What we believe is true.” It would appear that, in a world of cultural evolution, both words and actions have fallen into disrepute.

Reality vs fantasy, fact vs fiction, certainty vs illusion, being vs nothing, action vs perception, words vs . . . . What?

Whether my words speak truth or my words speak lies, they are one with me, with the substance of who and what I am. They are intimate to me and come from my very self. On the surface words may appear as glistening marble while covering nothing but ash; or they may be exactly what they purport to be. They come from the core of my being, from my true self. They identify who and what I am and that is most commonly a mixture of truth and deception which we struggle to refine in favor of one or the other, in favor of truth or deception.

Any God who is worthy of the name must be a God of truth. So it was when our God sent a savior — he sent his Word — one in being with his very self, they very essence of truth. So we are advised:

Do not swear.

Do not take a false oath.

These tell the world who and what you are.