22/01/2014

Good morning.

Language is a glorious mystery. You can use language to express what is almost inexpressible. Mere words grouped together on a page can speak a universe of meaning. As the great poet Seamus Heaney once said, words thoughtfully chosen can “make hope and history rhyme”.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Our language has the capacity to heal and inspire, to give expression to dreams and hopes and is what makes us little lower than the angels. At its best, what we do with language is the nearest approximation we have to what it means for us to be made in the image of God, whose word, once spoken, brought existence out of the vast silence of nothingness.

Words connect us, help us to be understood and give us the raw materials to make and shape and invent. And we should never underestimate the capacity of language to heal human brokenness.

Hugh Trevor Roper, the historian, wrote this in a letter to his stepson who was going through a difficult period as a student. “Don’t be frightened. If in doubt, if in anxiety, if in depression, say so without fear. We have invented language, refined it so that it can express the subtlest thought, even the obscurest sensations; why then should we not use it and dissolve difficulties by articulating them?”

Loving God, you spoke your word and stars and galaxies cascaded into being. Through our use of words, we can begin to decipher the beauty and order of existence and connect our life to the lives of others. Help us always to treasure language and use it with reverence and care. We ask this in the name of the one who spoke so many good words in season. Amen.