God's First Language

The poet Czeslaw Milosz was born in Lithuania, raised in Russia, settled with his family in Poland, defected to France because of the Polish communist practice of taking political prisoners, and finally emigrated to the United States. Throughout his moves he kept writing poetry in Polish, even though his books had been banned in Poland and his poems weren’t translated into English until 1973. In 1980, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Milosz said, “Language is the only homeland.”

It follows that those who find their home in God need to learn God’s language. According to Thomas Keating, OCSO, “Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation. In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still and to rest in God.”

Learning a new language entails focused listening, repetition, and practice. Thus, to learn God’s language, we need to sit and listen to God speak through silence again and again and again. This is how Jesus learned God’s language, by repeatedly slipping away from his disciples at night or in the early morning to sit in silence. Clearly he learned to speak God’s language eloquently, as demonstrated by his silence at his trial and crucifixion.

An important attribute of silence is that it allows our actions to speak—thus, you could say that silence allows God to speak through acts of kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and presence. As students of the language of God, we too need to let our actions speak and reflect the goodness of our Creator and Teacher, in whom we find our eternal home.