From the Pastor's Desk | December 17, 2023

To quote Fr. Charlie Fox, Vice Rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, words are like nuclear power.  Nuclear power has the ability to light up a city, but it also has the power to obliterate that same city.  Proverbs 11:9 – “With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor.”  Proverbs 18:21 – “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”  Matthew 5:37 – “Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.  Anything more than this comes from the Evil One.”  Luke 6:45 – “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.  First Corinthians 13:1 – “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 

Words matter.  I cannot recall a conversation with my father that did not end with the words, “I love you.”  We live in a world where, arguably, men have become afraid of those words.  As a man, he was not afraid to say those words, and he said them often to my mom, my brother, and myself.  Those words have made all the difference in my life because I never questioned whether my father loved me.  Hearing those words meant that I matter and that I am somebody.  I will miss hearing those words come from my father.  I will miss the daily texts and phone calls.  I wish I would have called more.  (I have a lot of shortcomings as a son to atone for).   

Words matter and words effect change.  I work with high school students and spent time working with college students, and I can promise you that kids today do not hear those words often enough spoken from their fathers.  So, dads, I beg you, tell your kids you love them and that you are proud of them.  Do not be afraid of those words and say them often.  Our kids need to hear them because those words, coming from you, their fathers, will make all the difference in your kids’ lives. 

Words matter and words effect change.  In the Eucharistic Prayer, we pray the words of institution, the words that Jesus himself said over bread and wine, and those words transform, transubstantiate, bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  Words change reality because words have power.  Jesus Christ himself is the Word, the Logos, the Word made flesh, and through the Word came creation and through the Word came salvation.