The Power Of Words
By DONALD DeMARCO
The adage that the pen is mightier than the sword is a testament to the power of words. The right words can change a person’s life and place him on a better course. Scripture is replete with powerful verbal phrases that can inspire comfort, courage, and confidence. Consider the following five-word phrases culled from the Bible: “I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2); “My peace I give you” (John 14:27); “I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:27); “I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28); “You are precious and honored” (Isaiah 43:4).
Words can be an inspiration on an everyday level for ordinary people. But they can also be an important inspiration for those who are well known.
A young man was talking to a close friend and telling her that all he wanted was to find the right person. Without missing a beat, she said, “Everybody is looking for the right person, and nobody is trying to be the right person.” The remark stopped the young man in his tracks. He suddenly realized that he should be the right person someone else is looking for. His perspective shifted from placing his expectations on others, which he could do nothing about, to himself. His life then took on a new direction, one of self-improvement.
Chris Norton was an 18-year-old college football player when a tackle he made left him paralyzed. After emergency surgery, doctors gave him a mere three percent chance of ever moving below his neck. On his fourth night in the hospital, a physician came to see him and did something that is not found in a medical textbook. She knelt down next to his bed and said, “Chris, look me in the eyes.” “I’m here to tell you,” she stated with irresistible conviction, “You will beat this. You will beat this.”
Her words restored his faith. From then on, he grew stronger, day by day. It was a slow improvement but he was finally able to walk. A few years later, he had enough strength to walk his bride down the aisle. He is now a motivational speaker, author, philanthropist, and father of five. Four words changed his life forever.
St. Augustine’s life was at a low ebb. He characterized himself as the most learned and most dissolute graduate of the University of Carthage. His life had been given over to lust. One day, while in his garden, he heard a child’s voice say “tolle lege” (take and read). Augustine had been reading the Letters of St. Paul and he let the book open on its own. The book opened to the thirteenth chapter of the Letter to the Romans, where Paul exhorts his readers to give up the way of the senses and follow the path of Christ. These two words marked the turning point of his life. He became a Christian and embarked on a remarkable path in which he became a bishop, a doctor of the Church, and a saint.
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s first symphony was met with scorn. Cesar Cui, one the formidable “Russian Five,” commented that the 24-year-old composer must have studied in a “conservatory in Hell.” The negative reception left him unable to compose anything of substance for three years. He became an insomniac, lost his appetite, and spiraled into melancholia.
At the advice of his aunt, he sought the help of Dr. Nikolai Dahl, a music-loving psychiatrist. Dahl placed Rachmaninoff under hypnosis and repeated to him day after day, “You will begin to write your concerto…you will work with great facility…it will be excellent.” The treatment was successful.
“Although it may sound incredible,” Rachmaninoff later recalled, “by autumn I had finished the first two movements of the Concerto.” Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, which he dedicated to his esteemed doctor, is regarded as one of the truly great piano pieces, and takes its rightful place along with the concertos of Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin.
Patrick Peyton was a seminarian studying for the priesthood for the Congregation of the Holy Cross when he developed a severe case of tuberculosis. After he spent several months flat on his back, his condition worsened. Doctors contemplated a desperate procedure which would save his life but leave him a permanent cripple. At this critical point Fr. Cornelius J. Hagerty came to visit him, the man who, as Peyton would later state: “Made the decisive contribution in what I regard as the supreme crisis and turning point of my life.”
His old philosophy professor was a man of absolute sincerity. Therefore, Peyton was well disposed to accept what he had to tell him. “Our Lady will be as good to you as you think she is,” Fr. Hagerty said. “If you think she is a fifty-percenter that is what she will be; if you think she is a hundred percenter, she will be for you a hundred percenter.” Peyton prayed to our Lady with renewed confidence. In due time, after Hagerty’s visit, doctors were astonished to find that the pernicious fluid was gone and confessed that they had no way of accounting for Peyton’s dramatic improvement. The cure was total and the malady never recurred.
Peyton decided to spend the rest of his life devoted to the promotion of the rosary. The Family Rosary Crusade was born and Fr. Patrick Peyton brought the message that “the family that prays together stays together” to the four corners of the world. In 1961 he addressed a gathering of 550,000 people in San Francisco. That same year he spoke to 600,000 in Caracas, Venezuela. Fr. Peyton continued his crusade for more than 50 years. He was resurrected through words and wanted to provide the world with words of hope and trust.
We should never underestimate the power of words.
- + + (Dr. Donald DeMarco is professor emeritus, St. Jerome’s University and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College. He is the author of 39 books and is a regular columnist for St. Austin Review. His latest book, 12 Supporting Pillars of the Culture of Life and Why They Are Crumbling is posted on amazon.com.)