You may have been told as a child that “Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you”.
However well known this old saying is it is also untrue. Words can hurt….Words do hurt and more important Words matter. The Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel soon realised that Jesus’ words, though not spoken, were far more powerful than stones.

“The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery. And making her stand there in full view of everyone they said to Jesus “Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?… Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger…. If there is anyone among you who have not sinned let him be the first to throw a stone…. Then he bent down and wrote on the ground again…”

On the other hand, Christianity is based on the conviction that words are more than speech. They engage our humanity and healing words are inexhaustible. For the woman in the story words written on the ground but not recorded saved her from stoning and the judgement of others.
R.S Thomas, distinguished Welsh Poet, once asked about Jesus, the Word of God, “What word is so explosive, as that one Palestinian word, with the endlessness of its fall out?”
We must keep on exploring that endlessness because we know that Jesus matters and words matter. As we speak to and think about others, let us remember that every word we utter and thought we engage matters.
St. Frances de Sales, Bishop of Geneva from 1602 to 1622, used to remind people that there is good in everyone and the fun lies in finding it. Let us go on that search every day and when we find the good in another we will enjoy life more.

We also know now through Science that every thought, positive or negative, goes out beyond us to impact the world in some way. Let us remember the Word of God and choose our words conscious that our words do matter.

Isaiah a prophet of long ages past assures us that there is “no need to recall the past, no need to think about what was done before. See I am making a road in the wilderness. See I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light. Can you not see it?”

Can we trust that something new is forming in our World, our Country, our Parish that none of us can yet see? Do we trust that something new will come… could the Pharisees in the Gospel have seen what was coming? Would they ever have brought the woman “caught in the act of committing adultery” before Jesus if they had… they were so sure of the past and the teachings from the past that they could not imagine the future. They came with their stones to throw and Jesus, the Word of God, responded with words not spoken but written on the ground where they too could be washed away.