Origin of Words

Learning the source of words and using them well

05/04/2022

Jn 6:35-40 Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

Boys and girls, I want to talk to you about something very serious today. And I want you to pay very close attention to my words. I want to explain to you where our words come from and how we should use our words. Have you ever been in a school Spelling Bee? In the Scripps National Spelling Bee, sometimes contestants will ask for the “origin of the word”.

That is, they ask whether the word comes from another language, like Spanish, such as the word “taco”, or from Latin, like the word “patriotism”, which comes from “pater” meaning “father” like in fatherland, and love of country. If you know where a word comes from you can spell it better, but you also learn its meaning and can use it in a sentence. In other words, if you know where a word comes from, you can use the word better. You can wield a word like a sword.

Now, what is the origin of most of our words that we use every day? Where did we learn the words we use to talk to our friends, that I am using in this homily, that we read in books, that we use to text and email and post on social media? We learned those words from our parents and in language classes and vocabulary lists in great schools like Trinity. If you were really lucky, though, your parents might have taught you words in another language, like Spanish.

My parents tried to teach me Malayalam, but I was too stubborn and stupid to know what a blessing being bilingual was. Our parents taught us good words. And we use these good words like a sword to defend ourselves. In Spanish when you are becoming fluent you say, “Si, yo me puedo defender”. That means that I can defend myself in Spanish. I know enough words and can use them like swords to defend myself.

In the seminary we learned that all good words have one original Source, namely, God. God speaks one Word, Jesus, and he is the origin of all our good words. Jesus, the Word of God, is the fountainhead of all the good words of all the languages of all the world: English, Spanish, Latin, French, Italian, even Malayalam. But we also learned in seminary that there is a source and fountainhead of all the bad words. I will give you one guess who that is.

Obviously, the devil or Satan is the source of all evil words, all lies, all racial slanders, all gossip, all bullying, all terroristic threatening, all broken promises, all vain self-congratulating, etc. That is why Jesus says in Jn 8:44 that the devil is “a liar from the beginning and the father of lies”. Here, too, we can see how knowing the origin of a word can help us use it better, or not use it at all, because it is bad. In other words, good words (like our parents teach us) come from God and they are a “sword” we use to defend ourselves. Bad words come from the devil, and they too are a “sword” that we can wield to hurt others and do great damage.

Boys and girls, there are some words I never want to hear you using here at Trinity, or anywhere else for that matter. These words are so bad that I do not even want to use them in this homily, but will indicate them with their first initial. I think you will know immediately what words I am talking about. For example: the n-word, the f-word, the s-word, the b-word, and so forth. I apologize for even mentioning these words by their first letter, because even that will cause the word to pop up in your mind. Now, why are those words so bad?

Well, they are bad for two reasons. First, what is the origin of those bad words? The true source and fountainhead of those bad words is not another language like Latin, Greek, or German. The real source is the Devil. And when we use those words, we sort of become his “children”, and learn to talk like him. Just like our mothers and fathers teach us good words, and we talk like them, so the “father of lies” teaches us bad words, and we learn to be more like him.

The second reason bad words are bad is because, like I said, they are a “sword” we use to hurt others. We use good words as a sword to defend ourselves. But we use bad words like swords to destroy others. Make no mistake about it: the b-word, the n-word, the s-word, the f-word, are indeed like weapons we wield to do a lot of damage. They can devastate people. Use your words wisely.

Next time you are watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the contestant (who will probably be an Indian boy or girl) asks, “Word origin, please?” think about the real origin of all words. Good words all originally come from Jesus, the Word of God. All bad words in the end come from the Evil One. Therefore, learn to wield your words well.

Praised be Jesus Christ!