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Language of the Spirit


Stories often communicate big ideas more effectively than extended commentaries in flowery prose.  So let me begin with a story about language of the Spirit.  However good the story is, its connection to the language of the Spirit is implicit.  I will have to offer some commentary to make that clear.

I’ll preface the story by saying that I know a few languages.  At one point, I was nearly fluent in German, having spent a year in Germany at a university.  However, like so many things, if you don’t use it, it becomes very rusty.  When it comes to speaking and reading German now, I feel like a cripple.  And I can read two or three other languages, thanks to requirements to get my doctoral degree.  The story I want to tell necessitates knowing some Portuguese, which I do not.

Portuguese is necessary because the story took place in Brazil.  On numerous occasions I joined my colleague for a short teaching excursion to Curitiba, Brazil, where our university had a relationship with a Franciscan university.  Fortunately, we could teach English.  I remember so many evenings walking to the university, only to be greeted by a throng of elementary school kids.  The Franciscans also ran a huge elementary school on the same site. 

The name of the elementary school was a good religious name, Bom Jesus.  In Portuguese “bom” means “good;” hence the school was called “Good Jesus.”  I know just enough Portuguese to have figured out that and, so, it did not seem strange.  So I thought nothing about it.  One day my colleague was telling about the time his young son was with him.  When the son, who was in elementary school himself, saw the sign on the school and asked about it, he was dutifully told the name was “Bom Jesus.”

At once he asked, “But dad, why do they want to bomb Jesus!”  Of course, that is amusing…and understandable.  Had he been in France, good would be “bon.”  And in Spain good is “buena.”  Neither of those suggests “bombing Jesus.”  I like stories like these because I am fascinated with the nature and function of language.  Language is such an amazing gift for humans and, yet, language can at times be perilous.

If we know the language, it is a real gift.  We can talk with each other; we can “say” so much.  Nuance is possible.  We can “get to know” each other.  I feel like I can tell you who I am and you can do the same.  I can even say something like, “I love you,” and hope both of us “get” the profundity of that confession.  Perhaps too often I have said, “I understand you perfectly.” 

All this led me to begin thinking about the language of the Spirit.  We could assume the Spirit’s language is Hebrew or Greek, since those are the original biblical languages.  But this may simply be the Jewish or Christian assumption.  Perhaps the Muslim is sure the Spirit’s language is Arabic.  And so the assuming could go.  All this caused me to think more deeply about the language of the Spirit.

I am assuming the Spirit does have language or else there would be nothing communicable between us and the Spirit.  I have no problem thinking the Spirit can be translated into a variety of the human languages.  Clearly, the Christian Bible is translated into countless languages.  We could read multiple ones and see what each language tells us is the word for “spirit.”

This would not be much help.  I could know many different words for ‘spirit,’ but that does not actually tell us much about Spirit.  (I capitalize it here to indicate Spirit as some aspect of the Divinity---the Holy One).  The word “Spirit” simply is trying to name or point to a reality that is more than a vocal utterance.  And ah-ha, there was my clue.  The reality of the Spirit is not a vocal utterance---a word in whatever language.  The language of the Spirit is action, not words.

Let’s keep it simple.  Let’s assume the most profound language of the Spirit is the action of love.  You can imagine, as well as I can, the range of human actions that “convey” love.  I can say, “I love you.”  But I can also care for you; I can hug you.  And the range is huge.  At the big end of love, I can act lovingly toward a stranger or even an enemy. 

When I look at Jesus, that is what I see him “saying.”  In fact, he did it more with action than words.  His ultimate expression of this action of love was supremely sacrificial.  It is conveyed for Christians with the simply word, “cross.”  That is a powerful word that points to the profundity of a loving action that should leave us all speechless.

Join me in thinking about how else the language of the Spirit gets expressed.  Join me in committing to learn this language.  Let’s become more and more articulate with the language of the Spirit.  Together we could begin the making of a new world---which is the vision of Jesus.
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