How many languages do you speak?
Sitting in my study are innumerable Italian books, many of them grammar, used when I studied Italian at Glasgow University. For example: ‘Read and Think Italian’, ‘Italian step by step’, ‘750 Italian verbs and their uses’, ‘Living Italian’, as well as ‘The Wines of Italy’, ‘Buying a Property in Italy’ and ‘Merda, the Real Italian you were never taught’ which teaches you unrepeatable words – not one of the prescribed texts!
Of course, the best way to learn and develop in a language is to be in the country, where day and daily you are being absorbed into the culture, hearing the words and the phrases in their natural context.
To keep the language focused can be more difficult at home. Asking in a restaurant for ‘vino’ or ‘penne arrabbiata’ is only going to take you so far, so daily practice is essential.
One of the ways I practice is using my phone with various apps which encourage me to translate and the fun one called ‘Duolingo’. As noticed recently on the news regarding the usage of technology by those younger than sixteen and the need to protect them on social media platforms, mobiles can be addictive, even ‘Duolingo’ reminds me daily using leagues when I have moved up to a promotion zone to another level or will be demoted because I haven’t put in the required daily work! It will tell me, ‘Bruna from France’ has taken my space, and encourage me on emails and little characters how ‘disappointed they are‘!
Pressure! Pressure!
And Paul, in one of his most famous passages to the Church in Corinth writes,
‘I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels but if I have no love…’
For me, Paul recognises that we all speak the languages of men and women, whether it is English, Italian, French, Spanish, German or Greek in the New Testament.
We all use what we might know as our first language, but there is another language, that of ‘love.’
As the apostle reminds us, if the words we use, the speeches we make from lecterns in front of the paparazzi and the flashing cameras, the language we use in texts and emails, letters and cards, have no love, we are like ‘a noisy gong or a clanging bell.’
It is with great sadness that I listen to what is said and see what a world we have created.
I write this article on Holocaust Memorial Day and reflect on how little we have learned from the past, how hurtful words, hatred comments still come to the fore.
We all have the chance to speak more than one language, a Duolingo if you like.
We know that even the word ‘love’ can be used in so many ways, and will be as we approach Valentine’s Day, and moments of romance.
We buy the expensive cards, the flowers from the garage, the chocolates, the meal out, knowing that it is really a rip-off and that we shouldn’t need a day to tell those whom we care for that we love them and that they are an important part of our lives.
But we know that the love that Paul writes of, and Jesus shows us in his life, death and resurrection is of the deepest kind, that of ‘agape’, sacrificial love. As we move into February and head towards Lent and therefore the joy of Easter, may we all reflect not just in the words we use and the actions that we take, that they are done in loving ways.
Your friend and minister,
George C Mackay
