The Language of Love

Reading: Acts 2: 1-11

A lot has been written and said about the gift of tongues recorded here.  Whatever they were is anybody's guess, but what they mean is important in two respects.  In the first, the understanding of the disciples in each one's own language represents the undoing of all the divisions and differences in the story of Babel.  The confusion of understanding in that archetypal story represented the source of divisions among humans.  This story of Pentecost represents the reunification of the human race in one common understanding.

But this understanding is not due to a lingua franca.  The use of one common language does not ensure unity by any means.  The Church's insistence on Latin for centuries did not stop the endless divisions among Christians.  This language of the Spirit is the language of love, a language that is expressed more eloquently in deeds rather than words.  The offer of food, drink, clothing, or shelter is one that can given without words and conveys meaning far beyond any utterance in the human heart.  

If we wish to have the gift of tongues, let us practice our use of the language of love.  Let us go out and give food and drink to others, clothing and safe shelter.  Let us welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and imprisoned.  In those actions we will speak more eloquently than any words ever uttered, and it wil be understood by all as the language of the Spirit, the language of love.