Acts 2: 1 – 13
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’
Reflection
Pentecost completes Babel. At Babel God empowered a multiplicity of languages as a weapon against empire. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit allowed the, probably monoglot, disciples to speak a range of other languages. She could have empowered all those visitors to understand Aramaic but, instead, that motley band of tax collectors, zealots, and fishers were enabled to speak a range of other languages. Pentecost is the start of the Church and offers a foretaste of a catholic Church working in all cultures, with all peoples, in all languages.
The Church, however, has not always been good at recognising this diversity; for over a thousand years most Catholic Christians could only worship in Latin (often impeding mission) and even now many Orthodox churches use ancient languages (Church Slavonic or Koine Greek) instead of the languages that most people they minister to speak. Using the vernacular is important not just because it means people can understand but because language is the way into a culture. Learning another language enables understanding because it frames and encapsulates the world.
When the Church embeds itself in a culture it shows it values, appreciates, and wishes to learn; when the Church imposes its own ideology on a culture it does not offer good news; missionaries with Native peoples often made that tragic mistake.
Where diversity is seen as a threat, and where certain cultures are prized more highly, we should rejoice in the variety of languages and cultures around us. We can embody that diversity in worship with hymns from the “world Church” and by encouraging people to pray in their own languages when a variety of languages are present. A congregation I served in Manchester made a huge difference in its ministry of welcome by printing its liturgies in English and French, and by encouraging Francophone members of the congregation to lead parts of worship. It all helped to expand our ideas of the catholicity of the Church and of the diversity of humanity.
Prayer
Bring the hopes of ev’ry nation;
bring the art of ev’ry race.
Weave a song of peace and justice;
let it sound through time and space.
Let us bring the gifts that differ
and, in splendid, varied ways,
sing a new church into being
one in faith and love and praise.