what’s in a word?

Blog Published: May 8, 2007
By Sister Julie

It feels like it has been so long since I sat down to write, just to write. I’ve been reflecting a bit on what it means to be a person who is caught up in words every day (this happens when you are a reader and a writer and work at a publishing company) AND a person who has been embraced by Jesus, the WORD of God.

Words are a tricky thing … we strive to articulate who we are, how we feel, what we hope for in words — yet the very words can set us free or bind us. Sometimes I come across something that says perfectly what I feel — a song lyric or a quote from someone far more eloquent than I. But other times the words elude me, like they’ve gone into hiding and all I’ve got is a few mismatched nouns. People always think that if you are a writer than writing must be easy. But the fact of the matter is that it is just as much of a challenge. It’s just that for whatever reason we return again and again to the paper and pencil and keep on scrawling out letters in the hope that they’ll make some sense, somehow.

In terms of the spiritual life, we are people who use words regularly to worship, to teach, to share with one another, to encourage, to serve and so forth. Yet we are also people of action, people who strive to be fertile ground where good words can fall and not perish but take root and grow in us. In our prayer we embrace words but we also let go of words as we do all images when we are gazing upon God.

Scripture tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. The very first words of John’s gospel are “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Of all the images that the evangelist could have been inspired to use, it was the image of WORD. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is that which is proclaimed, that which is written on our hearts. Of all the things which God has said (and God has certainly had a lot to say over the years), Jesus is the Word, the definitive, complete Word of God. In this one Word we find meaning and salvation.

As a writer, I’ve got to hand it to God for saying in one Word that which writers have spilled untold amounts of ink to convey in our simple collections of nouns, verbs, and miscellaneous parts of speech.

Archived Comments

Kerry May 8, 2007 at 7:40 am

This is such a sensible and sensitive reflection, and it really speaks to me. About three years ago, I vowed I’d written my last because I feared that I was turning into a guy who frenetically churned out books instead of a guy who wrote because God had something for him to say. To my surprise, I feel called to start writing again. But this time, I hope, it’ll be a more mindful, more prayerful, discipline. It’s good to read that other Christian authors are being mindful of what they’re up to. So thanks very much!

Sr. Mary Helga May 8, 2007 at 7:44 am

Vicente Huidobro in his “Arte poética” says: “El adjectivo cuando no da vida, mata.” (The adjective, when it doesn’t give life, it kills.) But my favorite quote about THE WORD is from San Juan de la Cruz: “Una sola Palabra habló el pAdre que fue su Hijo y ésta habla siempre en eterno silencio, y en silencio ha de ser oída del alma.” (The Father spoke only one Word which was his Son and this speaks always in enternal silence and in silence it must be heard in the soul.)

Sister Julie May 8, 2007 at 9:47 am

Kerry … it is always good to come across a fellow writer. I pray that your writing is a mindful, prayerful discipline. That is my hope for my writing as well.

Wow, Sister Mary Helga, you stopped me dead in my tracks with those quotes. They say so well what I’m grappling with.

Reggie Hudson May 8, 2007 at 3:46 pm

Preach on my little sister!! A word is nothing other than a means for someone to convey a mental image into someone Else’s mind. Then we have JESUS……THE WORD……..An image, a thought…..an image and thought that is both overwhelming and all consuming to the natural mind.. “But we have the Mind Of Christ” (Brother Paul)……Hence , JESUS THE WORD OF GOD. No wonder I call you sister. I perceived that spark of life called eternal. May you warm and comfort yourself with that spark that can become a bonfire in your heart and soul. Just a thank you and to let you know your name is mentioned before The Throne by prayer as well.

Br. Dominic-Michael OHS May 9, 2007 at 5:13 am

I was listening to an interview with a Benedictine prior recently, and he was discussing lectio. The point he was making, and I agree with him, is that right from the opening paragraphs of scripture we see God as one who is speaking. The example he gave is Genesis 1:1-3. Most older translations make it appear as if the first verb is “created” in v.1, while newer translations seem to bring out the idea that “said” in v.3 is actually the first action of God in the creative process. So God is primarily a communicator, not creator (although He is also Creator of course). make sense? It did to me. God is still speaking, if only we will stop and listen in the darkness, emptiness, and, at times, formless void of inner chaos and confusion. Jesus is the Light of the world, the Life and Word we need now to survive…

Reggie Hudson May 9, 2007 at 11:20 pm

Sr. Mary Helga. God bless you sister, you get it too. THE WORD. God’s expression!! It took God to become The Word so that He could literally convey unto to us, just what He meant by the literal definition of the word, WORD. How could it possibly become any simpler than this? This world wants to confuse this issue and make you think it’s all very complicated. An old Algebraic term rings very, very, true. Simplify the equation. God did that very thing (a much easier task than trying to get us to to commit to anything other than ourselves).

Anne May 10, 2007 at 11:22 pm

I am blessed to be a reader and listener–of the Word–which is spoken through Sr. Julie and so many others. Thank you all for helping me understand so much more! God bless

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