“And they were amazed and wondered, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” – Acts 2:7-8
We find ourselves in a new apostolic age—a new era in which the dominant culture no longer speaks the language of Christianity. As disciples of Jesus in the modern era, we have a lot in common with the first Apostles. While a few decades ago, 90% of Americans identified as Christian,1 today only 62% do.2 As the number of Christians drops, the norms of what’s appropriate and expected in our country drift further away from Christian norms. Christian religious practices and a Christian way of life are becoming foreign to the typical American. As disciples, we are in the position of sharing Jesus Christ with a world that speaks a different language.
But we have been here before. And this hasn’t stopped us. The Pentecost event demonstrates God’s definitive power to cross through barriers of difference and culture to proclaim the Gospel.
Jesuit missionaries traveled across the world to foreign lands and to people with completely different languages from theirs. With no help from Google Translate, they learned to understand one another. They learned the language of the people with whom they hoped to share Jesus. Not only the words the people spoke but their culture, music, customs, assumptions, and hopes. They lived in their midst and got to know them.
Are we modern everyday missionaries any different? We certainly have a head start! Everyone in my circle who I hope would come to know Jesus already understands the words that come out of my mouth. In that sense, we speak the same language.
And yet, it seems we still need help from the Holy Spirit. How did each person who heard the disciples proclaim the power of God hear them in their own language? The Holy Spirit prepared their ears, minds, and hearts to receive what was foreign as something familiar. The Holy Spirit brought forth communication, connection, communion. God forged a path where there was no path.
I remember the first time I asked the Holy Spirit what I should say in a conversation. I was sharing a hot chocolate with Katie—a friend exploring Christianity who could as easily have dropped it in favor of New Age ideas or no belief in the supernatural at all. She was sharing about the stress she was under as she juggled a difficult class load and friction among her roommates.
Silently, I asked the Holy Spirit for the right words to say. I remember how it felt when the Holy Spirit answered my prayer: time seemed to slow down. God drew my attention to how much love He had for Katie. My compassion for the burdens she was carrying deepened.
Almost aware of my prayer herself, she paused what she was saying and left a window for me to speak. God had forged the path.
I didn’t say anything particularly profound. I merely asked how God was with her in her struggles. Yet, her response told the story. Her eyes held a flash of recognition. Her shoulders relaxed. She let out a deep sigh, like she had been holding her breath without realizing it.
My words landed. I spoke to her in her native language. The Holy Spirit cut a path to her heart and gave me the words that would speak to her.
It’s like Pope Paul VI says in Evangelii nuntiandi:
It is the Holy Spirit who, today just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by Him. The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the kingdom being proclaimed.
Techniques of evangelization are good, but even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit. The most perfect preparation of the evangelizer has no effect without the Holy Spirit (75).
Do we need techniques, good questions, and conversation strategies to bridge the cultural gap between us and those we want to reach? Yes, truly we do. But techniques and strategies are never enough. If we really want to speak a language that will resonate and be heard, let’s become experts at calling on the Holy Spirit. “Do not worry beforehand about what you are to say. But say whatever will be given to you at that hour. For it will not be you who are speaking but the holy Spirit” (Mark 13:11). This is how Jesus told us to witness.
- https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/
2. https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/
