When I read the account of the first Pentecost, I am always struck by the gift of speaking in other languages. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2:4).
What that must have been like! Being able to speak in tongues! Nowadays when we say people “speak in tongues” we think of people uttering sounds or speech that is not recognizable; not so much spontaneously being able to speak perfect Italian or French. It is believed these mysterious utterances are a divine language from God, or a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power. I witnessed this once when attending a charismatic prayer service for an assignment for a high school religion class.
All of this got me thinking. Without speaking divine language from God or suddenly sharing the Gospel message in textbook Chinese, is there a way to display this verbal gift of the Holy Spirit? St. Anthony of Padua says, yes. In a sermon he once said, “The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience and obedience.”
The Holy Spirit does continue to gift us with different ways of speaking. We might not get the “gift of tongues” but, as St. Anthony says, we can speak our witness to Christ by living lives rooted in the Fruits of the Spirit. “The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1832).
I trust that even without being a Holy Spirit linguist each of us can speak the language of good actions. We can all do works of charity and share the joy of the Lord. We can seek peace and demonstrate patience. Kindness and goodness can be the bedrock of our way of living. Being generous, gentle, and faithful can become the hallmarks of our lives. Each of us can commit ourselves to living modestly, in self-control and chastely. And who knows? Maybe our actions can speak louder than words.
