God's words are both words and works

"In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life."

I have been reading Pope Benedict XVI's Spe Salvi, and the section quoted above jumped out at me because it reminded me of something I had read somewhere else several years ago. This morning I tracked it down -- it is from Father Thomas Dubay's Fire Within. Here is the part I remembered:

"God's words, says the saint (he is speaking of Teresa of Avila), unlike ours, do what they say. The words He speaks "are both words and works. ....."

The power of the divine speech is attested in Scripture. As a matter of fact, the unimaginable, infinite power exercised in the moment of creation (which astonished astrophysicists now refer to as the "Big Bang") was, says Genesis, the word of the Lord. When Jesus in the garden on the night before He died was accosted by the soldiers who said they were looking for Jesus the Nazarene, He replied with the simple but overpowering "I am he." The evangelist remarks that on hearing these words, they moved backward and fell to the ground. It was also by His words that the Son raised Lazarus from the dead and cleansed the lepers. By this same power of His word He continues today to enlighten, heal and give life."

Our human words are not like God's. We are limited in power and in understanding, and fallen; so we say what we can't do, we say things that do not reflect truth. God does not do that.

Yet even human "logos" -- the Pope defined it as "meaning and reason" -- the Greek word means “speech, oration, discourse, quote, story, study, ratio, word, calculation, reason” ----has power.

"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment." Matthew 12:36

"It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." Matthew 15:11

This is why St Ignatius thought that educating in expression -- speech and writing -- was so important. The phrase "eloquentia perfecta" comes from classical times and was described this way in Implementation of Ignatian Education in the Home.

"...the end objective was always kept in sight: eloquentia perfecta.

"ELOQUENTIA PERFECTA" is simply the Ignatian term for the concepts that go back to Tertullian and Cicero. For the school of the Roman, it was Rhetoric. Both Rhetoric and eloquentia perfecta meant the student who was able to "write, speak, and act well." It meant the person who would be able to live up to his fullest potential and bring to his society a cultured, balanced and productive citizen.

In this sense, writing and speaking are integrally bound up with action and the way a person lives his life. Of course a non-verbal or uneducated person could still live a life for the greater glory of God. Yet within one's powers, one has the responsibility for speaking well and in accordance with one's actions, as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15 (Benedict points out that "reason" here is from the Greek "logos"):

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Jesus, of course, was the epitome of "Logos":

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I am praying this Advent that God helps me match my words and my works under His grace.