WORDS IN DAILY LIFE
01. INTRODUCTION
In the context of healing the sick at Capernaum, the centurion replied to Jesus, “For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go’, and he goes, and to another, ‘Come’, and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this’, and he does it” (Mt 8:9).[1] Indeed Jesus marvelled at the words of the centurion. In fact Words have built up nations, made empires to crumble down, consoled people, wounded badly, given hope, and disfigured the dignity of the human beings. What a power that the words have! This article attempts to highlight the various aspects of words from the insights of the book of Proverbs and Thirukkural.[2]
02. WORDS: GIFT OF GOD
Every living being has its own means of communication. Human beings, the crown of creation possess a supreme means to relate with fellow beings through words, and also as conscious beings oriented towards God. Such a state of life is an expression of God’s pure love that the creator has made human beings in his image and likeness (Gen 1:26) by which humans receive freely the qualities of God, to the extent of relating with him as partner in dignity (cf. Gen 1:28-30; 3:8-19; Ex 3:6-12). Therefore vertically words are gifts of God as Proverbs holds, “The plans of the mind belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” (Prov 16:1; also cf. 2:6). Through this gift, man is elevated from the entire creation and made dignified to converse with him and get his responses understood. In addition, horizontally words are gifts to humanity, so as to continue the work of God in building up the human family in particular, through the power of words.
03. POWER OF WORDS
Words have tremendous energy to construct and even to destroy. From a deep experience of this fact, the author of the book of Proverbs alerts saying: “He who guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin” (Prov 13:3, also cf. 21:23). Thiruvalluvar[3]also brings out the double effect of words and cautions to defend the tongue: “Since gain and loss in life on speech depend, / From careless slip in speech thyself defend”[4] (Kural 642; also cf. Prov 18:21). The tongue that utters blessing effects positive impact in the mind of the recipient: “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, / sweetness to the soul and the body” (Prov 16:24; also cf. 15:2a, 4a, 7a; 16:21b). But a wound inflicted by the burning tongue hardly gets healed, even though a physical wound disappears after the treatment: “In flesh by fire inflamed, nature may throughly heal the score; / In soul by tongue inflamed, the ulcer healeth nevermore” (Kural 129; also cf. Prov 16:27-28).
04. IMPORTANCE OF WORDS
The sages of every culture down the ages, with their insight over the immense power of words, have exhorted people to possess words as treasures. This is very explicit from the book of Proverbs: “To get wisdom is better than gold; / to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver” (Prov 16:16). Valluvar also declares that the ability to use words with the fullest cognizance of their power is greater virtue and wealth as, “Speak words adapted well to various hearers’ state; / No higher virtue lives, no gain more surely great” (Kural 644).
05. HANDLING OF WORDS
Words play a greater role in our day-to-day existence especially in relating with fellow beings. In such situations, the way we handle words makes a difference in our presentation and relationship. The wisdom of the sages shed light in the precise use of words – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Prov 25:11; also cf. 16:21a, 23a). The emphatic exhortation of Kural to use apt words at apt place in such a style that none other words to replace, runs parallel to the former – “Speak out your speech, when once ‘tis past dispute / That none can utter speech that shall your speech refute” (Kural 645; also cf. Prov 15:23). No one prefers unripe fruits to sweet ones served at table. Drawing inspiration from the simple fact of life, the Tamil poet interrogates, that why should one choose bitter words, when there are plenty of pleasant words? – “When pleasant words are easy, bitter words to use / Is, leaving sweet ripe fruit, the sour unripe to choose” (Kural 100; also cf. Prov 18:20). Thiruvalluvar makes few leaps in his thinking and teaches to abstain from empty words. He shares his wisdom in 10 Kurals in the twentieth chapter. The climax of his reflection is clear in his denial to call someone a man, who applauds worthless words, rather to be looked down upon as a chaff: “Who makes display of idle words’ inanity, / Call him not man, - chaff of humanity!” (Kural 196).
06. CONCLUSION
Thus the reflections on the various dimensions of words, particularly from two different traditions have exposed the role of words in the daily human existence. As ministers of the people, we are destined to use words extensively. In the bargain we might either build up persons, or disfigure their faces, for words never turn insipid as the arrow which escapes from the bow, never goes flat, but hits the target. In that sense, these texts remain perennial sourse of inspiration in our human enterprise.
G. Robert John Kennedy
III Theology, October 24, 2002.
* This was published in Unitas 2002, the annual magazine of St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore; Observer 2002-2003, the wall magazine of the Theology Section, St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore.
[1] All the biblical quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition for India, Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1973. They are immediately noted by permitted abbreviations for the particular book in the Bible.
[2] Thirukkural is the masterpiece of poet Thiruvalluvar, and one of the most influential among the Tamil Literary Works. Thiru means holy, which is added as a prefix to Kural. Kural means anything short and it is a couplet in nature. The architectonics of Thirukkural is that it consists of 133 chapters of 10 Kurals each. It is also the most translated work in Tamil. Dr Graul, a German Scholar translated into German in 1854; Beschi S.J., an Italian missionary into Latin in 1730; G. U. Pope, a British into English in 1886 and recently into Konkani by N. Purushothama Mallaya, Secretary of the Konkani Basha Prachar Saba, Mangalore.
For more details about Thirukkural refer my articles in: Cosmopolitan 1998-1999, Observer 2000-2001, Vasantham 2001-2002.
[3] Thiruvalluvar, one of the greatest thinkers and poet sages of Tamil Country, lived two millennia ago. G. U. Pope praises him, “The Bard of the Universal Man”.
[4] All the Kural quotations in English translation are from G. U. Pope, Tirukkural, Tamil University, Thanjavur, 2000.
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