The 16th-century mystic John of the Cross believe that God's first language is silence. "Silence is the language from which all other language is derived. It is the language of presence." Just being with the one we love gives meaning and power to the words we do use. Elijah learned God's first language when he "heard" God in the "sound of sheer silence." (1 Kings. 19:12)
In our own lives, our most primal reality, the womb,
precedes the words we use to describe it. God's first language is deeper
and more natural than words. Mastering his language is difficult,
especially for a community of activists and communicators.... We write
words. We sing words. We speak words. We use lots of words in lots of
ways to proclaim Good News in hard places.
The Apostle Paul
discovered, however, that unless we know God's first language as the source
of all speech, even our best words do great harm. "If I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Cor. 13:1)
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