This is not a meditation on sin and penance, as the subtitle would suggest, but more a reflective stroll through the moments when the words that come out of our mouths do not match those on the page. It happened twice last week. First, during evening prayer, my companion, instead of saying “The Word of the Lord,” at the end of a Scripture reading, said “The Work of the Lord.” The next day, at a service of Holy Eucharist at which my wife was presiding, she misread the word “sacrament” as “sacrifice,” a theologically sound malapropism. 

Such mistakes can be enlightening in unexpected ways. My favorite one occurred over thirty years ago when, on the feast of Our Lady, the priest was praising the mother of our Lord and referred to her as the “glamorous Virgin Mary.” (I think he meant to say “glorious.”) I still have a mental picture of Our Lady in a sequin dress, pearl necklace and matching earrings, gliding down the aisle at church and astonishing the Anglo-Catholic priests. Despite her demure representation in art, I like to think of Mary putting on the Ritz every so often. I think that will be our experience of heaven - one surprise after another.

Then there are the non-scriptural sayings that are not malapropisms, but convey two meanings. One I almost used in a sermon last Sunday is a blessing for thieves: “God helps those who help themselves.” Here is one that has no particular religious connotation, but is delightful on its own terms. It was spoken by Sir John Major, the former UK Prime Minister: “Sometimes, when your back is to the wall, you just have to turn around and fight.”

When my prayer partner said, “the work of the Lord,” instead of “the word of the Lord,” it made me stop and think about what Scripture does when we read it aloud. It connects us to God and to those people of faith those who have gone before us. How is their story relevant to my own? Through hearing and absorbing the words of Scripture, God is at work in my own consciousness, drawing me into older traditions and toward wisdom that is relevant today. 

As for the word “sacrifice,” this is one of those words that illuminates the way we think about Jesus. Jesus gave up his life that we may live. It was an act of selfless love done for the benefit of all humanity. Before his crucifixion, Jesus and his disciples met in the Upper Room, where Jesus shared himself in bread and wine. This action, done on the eve of his crucifixion, links sacrament and sacrifice forever. 

For all of this I say, “thanks be to God!” (And no, I couldn’t think of another way of saying that.) One of the things I am grateful for is that God doesn’t mix things up. He means what he says and makes no mistakes. Human beings, on the other hand, often get things wrong. It’s not all bad news, however. To err may be human, but sometimes it helps us to see things in a new light. 

Father David