And the Word Became Thought and Dwelt Among us

March 2, 2025

“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” The Gospel reading and the first reading clearly focus on the important role that language plays in our lives.  And while it is certainly true that our words express who we are and what we believe, what we perhaps often forget, or don’t realise,  is that the reverse is also true - namely that our words can control what we think and believe, and even how we function. And so we can say that not only does the mouth speak what the heart is filled with, but ours hearts are filled with what our mouths speak. 

Various studies today point out that language is not only a means of  communication, but  also shapes how we interpret our world.  In an experiment conducted by psychologist Jules Davidoff and Debi Roberson, the Himba people of Namibia, who do not have a word for blue in their language, were presented with a colour chart with 11 green tiles and 1 blue tile. The members of this tribe found it difficult to distinguish the blue tile from the green ones, but could easily identify the different shades of green, even though English-speaking people could not, as English lacked a differentiating word for some of the shades. Another example is based on the commonly known fact that inanimate objects in many languages also have a gender attached to it.  Thus a bridge is given a masculine gender in Spanish  and a feminine gender in German.   And when native speakers of these languages are asked to describe a bridge, the former tend to use what are stereotypically masculine traits (e.g. strong, sturdy, long, etc), while the latter tend to use stereotypically female traits (beautiful, elegant, etc).  

In his novel ‘1984’, George Orwell uses this understanding of the power of language to create a system where the authorities could control the population’s minds by creating a language called Newspeak that allowed them only a very narrow range of words, and so limited the range of thoughts they could have.  And even these words, through the technique of doublethink, implanted contrary meanings to old words.  So that when loyalty was taught to mean treachery, and the other way around, then a person feels s/he is being loyal when s/he betrays his/her family.

I have often reflected in previous blogs on how the language we use for God  and religion often suffers from the limitations and even distortions caused by language. I have spoken before about how the title “Christ the King” gives us a different understanding of Jesus than “Christ the Servant” (Should We Drop the Feast of Christ the King?). But this applies in other areas too. For example, when we read statements like these: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9), or  others like this: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” (John 3:36), we may  realise why it is not surprising that for long periods of time Christians believed that our religion was the only way to God. And this in turn justified us in wanting to convert others to our belief system, sometimes even by force or other less savoury ways.  But over the centuries, especially in the last hundred years or so,  the Catholic Church has become increasingly aware of the depth and spiritual wealth of other religions, and so has significantly explored these passages with the help of Scriptural scholarship to come up with interpretations that challenge such surface-level understandings of such passages. But for the average Catholic the language remains controlling, because it is found in the Bible, and so many, especially those who do not have first-hand positive experiences of other religions, still find it difficult to accept them with respect. 

Again, when we say that only ‘faith’ in Jesus can save us,  we tend to confuse the word ‘faith’ with ‘belief’ as the verb for having faith is ‘to believe’.  Consequently we conclude that believing in Jesus will save us which is what a superficial reading of the passage from Romans given above would tell us. And yet, as I have shared in an earlier blog, (Three Elements of a Saving Faith, February 25, 2024) just believing in Jesus certainly does not save us, for as Jesus himself taught: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven (Mathew 7:21).

We see this problem of how language controls us more clearly when we go outside the language world of Christianity.  For example, in the language of Christianity sin and virtue lead to hell and heaven respectively. The popular understanding of this language often gives rise to an approach of  wanting to do good for the sake of reward. However, in Hinduism the entry into heaven and hell is based on whether you have done your dharma (duty) without any desires attached to such actions. The emphasis, therefore is not so much on sin and virtue, but on duty. So, of all the virtuous Pandavas, in the great epic Mahabharata, only Yudhisthir reaches heaven as he is able to do his duty without any attachment to wife, brother, kingdom or even heaven. This, despite the fact that his actions are what cause the war in the first place. So while the traditional language in Christianity may lead many to do good in order to gain reward, the traditional language in Hinduism may allow a person to cheat and steal as long as it is in pursuance of their duty or dharma. Of course, a deeper understanding of these religions will tell us that neither does the Christian view tell us to do good for the sake of reward, nor does the Hindu way condone doing evil. But the language used may control what we believe and how we function.

This understanding of the power of language for good or bad might help us understand the vehemence of Jesus’ teaching:   “And anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ (which comes from the root ‘to spit’, and means ‘worthless’ in Aramaic) is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ (“fool’ here means one who has rebelled against God, and so refers to judging someone’s relationship to God) will be in danger of the fire of hell  (Mathew 5:22). And although we usually are aware that we must not call someone fat, or ugly, or stupid, as such language often influences not only how others perceive such persons, but also oftentimes how they begin to perceive themselves,  what we often do not realize are the subtle ways in which the language we use affects the world around us. For example, just by saying “those Muslims” or  “those gays”, etc. we are already communicating to our children and those who are part of ‘our’ group, that 'they' are different from 'us'; they are ‘the other’ concerning whom we must be wary.  

Language really has great power - for good and for bad. Or as the Bible tells us: “The tongue has the power of life and death, (Proverbs 18:21)

First Reading: Sirach 27: 4-7

When a sieve is shaken, the refuse appears; so do a person’s faults when he speaks. The kiln tests the potter’s vessels; so the test of a person is in his conversation. Its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of his mind. Do not praise anyone before he speaks, for this is the way people are tested.

 

Second Reading: First Corinthians 15: 54-58

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

Gospel: Luke 6: 39-45

He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briars. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.