A season to relish language deeper than words

15 December 2008

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Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor says that the heart of the Christian story is the word made flesh. Christ’s language is sacrificial love which took him to the cross

One of my favourite accounts of a happy childhood is told by Laurie Lee in his delightful book Cider with Rosie. Early on, he describes his first day at school. As a new boy in the playground for the first time, he was nervous and frightened of the noise, the size and the numbers of his fellow pupils. Going into the classroom, the teacher was busy with the other pupils. She told him to ‘sit down there for the present’. The young Laurie duly obeyed and sat down quietly in his place. When he got home he was obviously upset and disappointed. His mother asked him whether he liked the school. He told her he wasn’t going to school tomorrow. When she asked him why not, he cried and said, ‘They told me to sit there and wait for the present. I waited all day and no one gave me a present.’

That story tells a great deal about children’s understanding of language. And not just children. Words can mean different things to different people. Words can be creative and informative, beautiful and noble. They can be destructive and malicious too. Words once spoken can never be taken back. For better or worse, they take on a meaning of their own, defined and understood by the reader and listener in ways that the speaker and writer may never have intended. The countless words of radio and television, of newspapers and journals are intended to communicate information, convey truth and form opinion. The volume of words travelling back and forth by mobile phones, email and BlackBerries may well convey information. But do they communicate truth?

At the heart of the Christian story is the truth that God communicates himself not just in words but in a person. The gospel of John expresses this in a language which unites Hebrew and Greek thought and gives us an insight into the deepest thought of God. When God speaks, he doesn’t just talk about himself but reveals his innermost life. Verbum Caro Factus Est. The Word was Made Flesh. If we wish to know the truth about God, we listen and learn and enter into communion with Jesus, the Son of God, who became human so that we who are human might encounter the divine Emmanuel, God with us. Here is language that goes deeper than words. His language is sacrificial love which took him to the cross. Recognise love poured out to the point of death on the wood of the cross and we are able to catch a glimpse of the divine child in the wood of the manger.

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Bill Corr

December 16th, 2008 3:08pm Report this comment

This MAY be thought off-topic, but there are Spectator readers who dearly wish that prominent Christians in the West like the Cardinal would find the time to take some interest in what is happening to Christian communities in Kosova, Gaza, the West Bank and - seasonally appropriate - in Egypt as well as in such countries as Pakistan and Turkey. Why are the Christian communities in Bethlehem and Nazareth in such a state of precipitate decline?

Are ALL Western Christian leaders so paralyzed by Political Correctness that they feel unable to say anything at all about the reality for Christian communities in Muslim-majority societies?

Anglica

December 17th, 2008 2:15am Report this comment

Mr. Corr -

Our Christian leaders aren't. Or, if they are, they are immobilized and oppressed by the Marxist state (the anti-type of the Christian one), and by pagans from the nations you cite. Those expatriots are re-making Britain into the image of the vile places they left - so we need all our energy to nurture ourselves.

For, in this climate, Christians must care for their own, at home. Otherwise, there will be no people - or other resources - to help those abroad.

After all - if the only doctor dies, who will cure the sick?
If the airliner decompresses, and the crew have no oxygen,who will pilot the flight?

So, personally, I thank the Cardinal for the traditional part of his message. The N-eu stuff, like the reference to Calvino, gives me pause; but then, I'm not, and never will be, a Roman Catholic - or a euro.

Cornelius

December 18th, 2008 10:05am Report this comment

Pity that this same Cardinal so little understands the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Our Lord, Our God and Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, that he allowed a concert "proclaiming the 99 names of allah" to be performed in Westminster Cathedral. Apparently, no one informed the Cardinal, nor did he seem inclined to learn, that in Islam, "allah" has another name: The Great Deceiver who deceived mankind by substituting another man for Jesus (the Koran's "Isa") on the Cross (Sura 3) and that, therefore, neither the Crucifixion nor the Resurrection happened and that also Jesus is not the Son of God. The Cardinal cannot have it both ways: either stand up for and proclaim The Truth or step aside for those of us who realise that neither politicians, media, academia nor, most disgustingly of all, the clergy, possess the courage, integrity and faith to do so.

David Bouvier

December 22nd, 2008 7:53pm Report this comment

If I get the cardinals point it is that everyone elses' claims are just data but he has truth and you know it is true because minced pies and mulled wine are redolent of a happy childhood.

That said, I amused myself with imagining the hand-wringing equivalent written by Rowan Williams - a man who has tortured so many arguments he should be sent to the rhetorical Hague.

Derek Holmes

December 23rd, 2008 10:04am Report this comment

Good to see a Christian speaking of Christ as being God Incarnate; it certtainly makes a change. If there is no God then there is little or no point to existence but if there is a God then all are His children and we all matter equally to Him.

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