Use Your Words

Learning to harness the power of God’s Word

09/20/2022

Lk 9:23-26 Jesus said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

I have always been fascinated by words. Whenever I come across a word while reading I underline it in the book. I stop reading and look up the meaning of the new word and then try to remember it, and use it. But beyond the immediate English definition of a word I also love to learn the origin of a word because most English words are derived from other languages. The origin of a word in another language opens the door to a whole world of meaning for the same, simple, English word.

Have you ever noticed how sometimes a small child will get upset about something and start crying and carrying on, throwing a temper-tantrum? And his mother will patiently say, “Honey, use your words.” (Some wives may like to say that to their husbands, too.) In other words, honey, unleash the power of words to express what is in your heart and you will find peace. I am convinced that words are the most powerful force in the world. That conviction lies behind the old saying, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” That is, a pen that writes words wields more power than a sword that can cut off your head.

Today’s feast of Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon and Paul Chong Hasang invites us to examine one word more closely, namely, martyr. In English the word martyr means someone who suffered and gave his or her life out of love for Jesus. But martyr is not originally an English word. Its etymology (another great word) is Greek, and the Greek word “martur” means “a witness” or “someone who testifies” and in this case with their blood. By the way, that origin is also where we get the English word “testament” as in Old Testament and New Testament. In other words, the Bible’s Old Testament and New Testament are really the two great witnesses to Jesus Christ. See how much fun you can have when you learn to “use your words”?

Who were these martyrs, these witnesses of blood, Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and their companions? First of all, they were Korean martyrs who died for their faith in Jesus. They lived in the 1800’s, when there was a severe persecution of Christians. It was dangerous to be a Christian in Korea. You know, I wonder if someday soon it will be dangerous to be a Catholic Christian in our own country. As our culture and our Catholic faith grow further apart, I wonder how long our beliefs will be tolerated? Our country is not immune from what happened in Korea.

In any case, the Christian beliefs of Koreans in the 19th century were intolerable to the government regime so they tried to destroy the Church by killing the Christians. In these Korean martyrs we see proof positive how the pen is mightier than the sword. How so? Well, the words of the gospels inspired them far more than the swords of their torturers intimidated them.

There is yet another beautiful way the Korean people bore witness to Christ through the power of words. Christians first arrived in the Korean peninsula in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized by Christian Japanese soldiers. Korea, though, had isolated itself from the rest of the world, so there were no priests in Korea for almost 200 years. In 1777 when a priest secretly entered Korea, he found 4,000 Catholics, all baptized, but none had seen a priest. In other words, they had lived on the sacrament of baptism and the word of faith passed on from parents to children. Talk about using your words well!

By the way, I have met several Korean Catholics over the years and I have always been impressed by their faith. They usually do not talk very much, but they let their actions do the talking for them by their devout practice of the faith. Like the 103 martyrs that Pope St. John Paul II canonized in 1984, Koreans today still bear witness to Jesus Christ by the lives they lead. Even though their words are few, they “use their words” well.

Today, I hope you have begun to see and feel the power of words. The words of the gospels changed many lives in Korea, and inspired some Christians to bear witness with their blood to Jesus. I love to learn new words and to learn their origin in other languages, and discover even deeper meanings.

But we should remember that God the Father uses his words so well that he only uttered one Word, and that Word was his Son, Jesus. When we learn to use our words well, we will always and ultimately return to the one Word, Jesus, who is our power and our peace. The gospel of John begins with these thunderous words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!