WORDS LAST
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Tuesday in the First Week
of Lent is, “Words Last.”
Well, not all, but some - and we never know - which words and why some words - last.
e.e. cummings once wrote these words, “be of love a
little more careful than anything.”
I read those words a long time ago - and for some reason
- I remember them for this long time.
As I remember them I think about them. Of course, life is about loving one another as
Jesus taught us. Moreover, be careful in how we are with and how we treat one
another.
Last night because of Jesus and Isaiah’s words for today,
I wondered if we can jump from e.e. cummings words to also saying, “be of words, a little more careful than
anything.”
In fact, I sense that this switch in words has more grab for me
than, “be of love a little more careful than anything”.
Words last - so we should be careful of them. Am I
talking about positive - complimentary words - or negative words?
Maybe I’m thinking or wondering more about negative comments - hurting words - that rattle around in our brain and our memory and last for 50 - 60 - 70 years.
WORDS LAST
The title of this homily is, “Words Last.”
The words we hear today from Isaiah 55:10-11 have been
around - perhaps for 2500 years and they have a
wonderful shelf life.
Isaiah 55 says that God’s word is like seed - planted in the field. In time they become
flour and food - wheat and bread.
Like bread, we eat our words - and they become us. They
educate us. They feed us.
As we say the words of the Our Father - which we hear in
today’s gospel, we can also pray, “Give
us each day our daily words - good -
loving - life giving - like good bread - words."
We are what our parents said to us - our teachers said to
us - our children’s books said to us.
Isn’t that how we learned our vocabulary. We listen, we
hear each other. We read our books and newspapers and magazines. We have our conversations?
We speak the language of our parents - and others.
My niece Jeannie married a guy named David - from Milan,
Italy and I’ve heard that he didn’t speak till he was 4 - and out of his
mouth came 4 languages all at once: Italian, English, Spanish and French. His
dad was Italian, but taught Spanish. His mom was from England and they had a
French Nanny.
Hopefully, we heard lots of, “I love you’s” in all kinds
of languages from family and the relationships of our lives.
Hopefully those words like seed sank into us - grew - and
they became us - and we became devoted servants.
LAST NIGHT
Last night we heard at our parish mission good words from
Father Phil Dabney and Father Jim Wallace.
Some of their words were planted in our minds and hearts.
We heard and then saw poems
by Jessica Powers and Mary Oliver - on the screen up here behind our altar.
Words Last....
I think about a moment I was
walking along and my nephew around 30 says to me how much a letter I wrote to
him when he was 16 - became part of his life.
I think of all the people we
have talked to in our lives and how those thoughts and sentiments became us.
CONCLUSIONS
Obviously words become flesh.
Obviously, we need to say
loving words, to others - who hear our words and they are moved.
Obviously, we need to say
forgiving words, to others - who might be talking to themselves about something
we did that they did not like or we hurt them.
