When Every Single Word Counts
By Emma Restuccia
The English major and writer in me is always listening to the use of particular words, especially in Mass and the Scriptures. Of course, word choice matters so much in all things, but particularly in our faith. Christ Himself is the Word, the Logos, after all.
The meaty nouns teach us so much about the faith. The major words matter immensely - love, mercy, sacrifice, etc. But sometimes, the littlest words - the prepositions - reveal just as much.
One phrase from the Mass sparked my thinking on this. It is from the concluding part of the Eucharistic Prayer, just before the Great Amen. The priest says: “Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, for ever and ever.” This prayer is called the Doxology, a prayer of praise to the Trinity. To which the congregation responds, “Amen,” called the Great Amen because it is the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer, and an enthusiastic and affirmative response to the great miracle that just happened in the consecration.
The beginning of this line always caught my ear because of the repetitive cadence of the prepositions: “Through Him, with Him, in Him…”
It is a very Pauline line, drawn from the Letter to the Romans: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen” (11:36).
Well, the English major in me is thinking, “Paul, omit needless words!” Why say in many words what you can say in a few? Why use three prepositions when we would basically get the point with one?”
Because each of those words is packed with a particular and individual meaning that captures a unique aspect of our life with Christ.
Quick grammar refresher: In the English language, there are nearly 150 prepositions, words that show the relationship between nouns or pronouns. Prepositions such as of, to, and in are among the most frequently used words in English, and those such as to, of, in, for, on, with, at, by, and from are in the top 25 words.
So, prepositions indicate relationship - temporal, spatial, or logical connection between an object and the rest of the sentence.
In the 16 chapters of the Book of Romans alone, Paul uses 58 withs; 44 ins; 33 throughs; 16 upons; 11 before; 9 intos; 7 againsts; 2 untils; and a lot of other prepositions. That is quite a few prepositions.
Paul’s prepositions indicate what kind of relationship we are to have with Christ, what our life in him looks like, and how we are to live so that we can be with him forever. Like Paul, who became “all things to all people” (1 Cor 9:22) for the sake of the Gospel, our connection with Christ must be all encompassing. While his prepositions certainly show temporal, spatial, or logical attachment, they also demonstrate our emotional, physical, and spiritual one.
The preposition plethora further demonstrates Christ’s relationship with us: above us to bless us, amongst us to commune with us, before us to guide us, beside us to uphold us, within us to enkindle us. There are so many because Christ is constantly striving for a relationship with us, constantly looking for a way to connect and win our hearts.
I think St. Patrick understood this grammatical gist, as he captured it in his famous “Breastplate Prayer:”
“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”
This prepositional prayer describes well the unlimited relationship we are to have with Christ. He is not just a part of life. He is life. He is everything.
I wonder if St. Paul would himself be an English major, or if he would be the bane of his grammar professors. Either way, analyzing his words - especially the small ones - can teach us emphatically about the call and path to holiness.
