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19th Sunday in Ordinary Time A 2026

What is the language of God?

In the ‘Latin Rite’ of the Catholic Church (that’s us!) we often conflate God’s language with the language of the Mass. If Latin is the language of God, what about Hebrew or Greek? Certainly, we still use them in the Mass (e.g. Alleluia, Amen and Kyrie Eleison) because they are the languages of the cross - the Mass its perpetual memorial. Pilate wrote the inscription, ‘This is the King of the Jews’ above the cross in these languages, so all who passed by could read it.

For the past 60 years, we have enjoyed hearing and assisting at Mass in our own vernacular languages but we dispel the notion that ‘Vatican II’ got rid of Latin, for it did no such thing, saying in ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium’ (the document on the sacred liturgy) at paragraph 36, ‘the use of the Latin language is to be preserved’. Latin remains the universal and official language of the Church, and so, we should be able to pray the principal prayers of the Church in Latin, helping us participate more fully at ‘International Masses’ with the rest of the Catholic World.

Still Latin is not the language of God! The first book of Kings suggests silence is God’s language. When we make space for God; when we unplug from our headphones, TVs, smartphones and Tablets, we hear the thumping silence of God revealing his plan for us. Silence, then, is also the language of the Mass (along with the music, gestures, rituals, and colour of the vestments). Silence allows us to hear, listen and discern our response to the Lord who calls us out of darkness into his own wonderful light. In the silence of our hearts we bring our joys, hopes, sufferings and fears and bring them before the Altar as an offering to God.