A life is changed forever when these words are spoken:
"I love you."
"I hate you."
"You're a freak."
"You're very special."
"Your mother and I never wanted you; you were a mistake."
"Do you want a job?"
"You don't have the talent to do this."
"You're very talented."
"If you don't do this, we'll cut you off from the family."
"You can't tell anyone about this; it's the family secret."
"You're nothing."
"You're everything."
"Curse you!"
"Bless you."
Or the words that Fr. Joseph F. Girzone heard at the age of fifty from his Doctor: "You have a weak heart. You need to retire from active ministry." Joseph Girzone was a simple Catholic priest who loved working with people: in parish life, in schools, and in the wider community with people from different faith traditions. His life turned upside-down by a sentence, Fr. Girzone prayed for Heavenly Guidance about what direction his new life should take.
And the man who had no training in writing and had never written before began to write a novel, a modern parable, "Joshua," based on what Jesus would look like, how he would live, and what he would do and say if he would come back to earth today. Fr. Girzone self-published the book and publicized it himself. The power of simple words written in faith caused the book to become so popular that a publisher picked it up, and Girzone wrote a series of "Joshua" books. The books are loved by people from every faith tradition around the world because Joshua/Jesus speaks and lives the simple, powerful message of love: love for your neighbor, love for the poor, love steeped in humility, love lived out in forgiveness.
Fr. Girzone wrote an autobiographical book, "My Struggle with Faith," in which he gives this insight into Jesus - and Jesus' understanding of the power of the word that forgives:
"If you want to have peace of soul, learn to forgive. Jesus' secret was His ability to see into people's hearts. Seeing their anguish and pain helped Him to understand their nastiness. So He could pity them rather than become angry with them. That is what we have to do: try to understand the pain in people's lives...and not take personally what they do to us."
In the Prologue to John's Gospel, Jesus, God and Man, is called the Word, God's perfect revelation of Himself to us, and the Word Who saves us: "And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." We too are sons and daughters of God, called to be living Words that reveal God to others. Are our words to others glorious ones, full of saving grace and truth? Or are our words mean and destructive, a betrayal of the God Who created us in His Image?
A single sentence spoken by us at the right time can change someone's life forever: our words can illuminate their path to salvation, or fling them on a path spiraling downward into self-hatred and shame.
"Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you." (Natsuki Takaya)
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