POPE Benedict, increasingly known to use if not coin striking phrases to describe current phenomena, warns us about what he terms as “inflated words and images.”
In a recent get-together with the Roman clergy, the expression again came out, and the Holy Father gave a very meaningful commentary that I think is worth sharing with everyone.
A priest asked a question, prefacing it with an incisive observation. Let’s quote him, since his words, at least to me, captures the drama behind the term.
“I believe,” he said, “that all of us realize that we live more and more immersed in a world of cultural word inflation—words that are, in the end, often without meaning—which disorient the human heart to such an extent that it becomes deaf to truth.
“That eternal Word that became flesh and assumed a face in Jesus of Nazareth becomes—because of this inflation of words in our world—fleeting, and above all for the new generations, inconsistent and distant.”
This commentary of the priest, obviously inspired by the Holy Father’s views on inflated words in another occasion, points us to a number of truths that I feel we should try to be more aware of these days.
Words are not just letters and sounds. They indicate a reality, and ultimately their meaning and relevance is a participation of the Eternal Word, who is the source and embodiment of our authentic reality.
What is immediately clear is that words have a certain sacredness to them, since they are not just human inventions. Though minted by us, they ultimately come from God and should reflect God.
Therefore there are certain rules to follow, violations of which comprise what can be called an abuse, or as the Holy Father describes it, a word inflation. Words can be so puffed up and distorted that they can lose contact with reality, and build a false one.
The ideal is that our words should be thought of, used and spoken always with God in the middle. Our words should come from God and end with him, in keeping with our dignity.
Let’s remember that of all the creatures in this world, we are the only ones capable of making our own reality. We can distinguish between an objective and a subjective world. This is due to our spiritual faculties—our intelligence and will.
Our objective world should not be understood as a static reality. It has to correspond to our subjective world that is marked by autonomy and dynamism.
But our subjective world, built up by constant motion and free, creative forces, also has to correspond to our objective reality that connotes stability, laws to follow that reflect our true nature as persons and dignity as God’s children.
Thus, in this regard, words and images play important roles. They are materials, together with our ideas and reasonings, that figure in the constant interplay of the objective and subjective realities in our life.
We have to see to it that our words are inspired by God, that is, by love, goodness, truth, justice, etc. The autonomy, creativity and dynamism we enjoy when using words should be infused by these.
Otherwise, our words would be at the mercy of tricks and games which, at the start, can be innocent but which can deteriorate into something demonic. We can play our own tricks, or we can—willingly—get swept away by a formidable web of devil’s wiles.
The usual forms of inflated words are lies, verbosity and loquacity, exaggerations, glib but deceptive speech. But we should be more aware of today’s more subtle, bizarre if more attractive forms.
If you want to get a sample of these forms, go to the worlds of politics, entertainment and sales or in any environment where God is ignored. You’ll have an excess of sweet and smooth talkers, or those maddened by hatred, envy, vanity, etc.
The Pope suggests we find time and space to be with God always, to regain our proper bearing and restore the Christian sense of words and images, which is never passive but rather can be very active and imaginative.
The Psalm says: “Happy the man who…delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night.” (1,2)
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