The power of words

Last spring, I attended the graduation of one of my brothers from a local university.

What I witnessed, at least on the surface, was not extraordinary. It was no different from what others witness at the countless other graduation ceremonies that happen each year. And yet, upon reflection, something significant struck me about what took place there.

The ceremony was filled with the usual pomp and circumstance that accompanies most graduation rituals: a procession of the students and faculty, inspiring speeches and students walking across a stage, posing for pictures. However, toward the end of the graduation, we all witnessed the real reason we were there: The university president stood before the microphone and said something along the lines of, “By the power vested in me, I confer upon each of you students your respective degrees.”

Then, as is customary, the students turned their tassels and, boom, they were officially college graduates.

As I was reflecting on this event, what struck me as being so powerful was how with just a few simple words spoken by the right person, the lives of so many people could be altered so drastically. In other words, when the right person said the right words, it changed the fabric of reality. My brother walked into the graduation without a college degree and he walked out as a college graduate. In some real sense, who he was had changed. In the eyes of the university, in the eyes of potential employers and in the eyes of the world, he was now a different person.

And yet, he didn’t look any different afterwards than he did before. During the opening procession, I watched my brother as he walked into the amphitheater. He walked in a young man with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of college debt, with no college degree, dressed in a cap and gown. And I saw him as he walked out. A young man, still with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of debt, still dressed in cap and gown, but now he had a college degree. That’s no small change. And all because of those few simple words spoken by the university president.

And that’s because words have power. When the right words are spoken by the right person, they change the fabric of reality, even though we don’t always perceive a change in the appearance of that reality. And if the simple words spoken by a university president can so drastically alter the lives of college students, then you better believe that when it is God who speaks, the impact is all the more certain and all the more real. In the words of a hymn composed by St. Thomas Aquinas, What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do: Truth Himself speaks truly…or there is nothing true. (Adoro Te Devote) In other words, if the words spoken by God, who is Truth

Itself, are not true, then neither are any other words.

This has repercussions in our lives as disciples of Jesus. Because as Catholics, we believe that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the words spoken by the priest over the bread and wine at every Mass, cause the bread and wine to be really changed into the body and blood of Jesus.

This is true, not because of any special power of the priest himself, but because of the power of Jesus, who is acting in and through the priest at Mass, and through the power of Jesus’ words.

Yet, we can’t help but notice that the bread continues to appear to us as bread, even after the priest speaks the words of consecration, even after the bread is transformed into the real flesh and blood of Jesus. Even after that incredible transformation takes place, the Eucharist, the real flesh and blood of Jesus, still appears to our eyes to be ordinary bread.

Friends, this is how it is supposed to be. At Mass, we shouldn’t expect the bread to take on a different appearance after the consecration, any more than we should expect college students to take on a different appearance after they officially become graduates.

As we witness the beautiful changes that take place around us this spring, may they serve as reminders to us of how sometimes the most significant changes in life occur in ways that go unnoticed by our senses; whether that be a new college graduate, a man and woman joining together in marriage or Jesus descending to be with us at every Mass under the appearance of ordinary bread. These changes take place because words have power. When spoken by the right person, words have power to change the fabric of reality, especially when spoken by God Himself. For, what God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do: Truth Himself speaks truly … or there is nothing true.

I realize the analogy is not perfect. Every analogy limps, as the saying goes. Yet there is something true in this analogy that can help us to understand, even just a little bit better, the beautiful and true teaching on the Eucharist, which leads us to this last point.

Here we are again in the midst of another spring. Spring is a season of growth and new life bursting forth. Perhaps this is why college graduations often take place in the spring. But spring is not only a time of graduations, it is also the season for First Holy Communions. After a time of preparation, each spring some of our young parishioners get the opportunity to approach Jesus in the Eucharist to receive Him for the first time into their bodies and souls. What a gift!

Anyone who has ever attended a First Holy Communion knows what a great joy and privilege it is to witness. And as a priest who gets to give First Holy Communion, it often feels like I’m witnessing a long anticipated meeting between two people for the first time. It’s always a mystery what happens between Jesus and that young child during their first reception of Holy Communion, but one is able to glimpse into how meaningful that moment is, not only for the child, but also for Jesus Himself.