How many languages are there in the whole world? The Lingua website reports that there are approximately 6500 languages.[1] Among these languages, “English is the most spoken language in the world including native and non-native speakers.”[2] On the Pentecost last weekend, one of our children answered that the language of the Holy Spirit is LOVE. Love is also the common language of the Three Persons in God to communicate with one another and abide by one another in the unity of the Trinity.

During the pandemic COVID19, the common language that brought the human race together was LOVE. Many individuals and nations went out of themselves to help. Among those was Reverend Doctor Anthony Tam Pham, who was not only a doctor but also a Catholic priest. He left Houston, Texas, to join the medical team in New York to help patients with COVID-19. Among those billionaires was Jack Dorsey, the most generous giver, who moved $1 billion of his Square stock, a quarter of his $3.9 billion net worth, into an LLC to support COVID-19 relief efforts and other causes. The second largest pledge comes from Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, whose foundation has committed $305 million, much of it to be spent on vaccines, treatment, and diagnostic development.

The one that I was touched the most was when many famous singers and artists, including Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Lang Lang, and many others got together for a virtual concert to raise $127.9 million to help health care workers and coronavirus relief. As part of the concert, they sang the song “We Are the World.” The lyric of this song brings home to me the words of Saint John reported in today’s Gospel that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believed in him might not perish but might have eternal life. Because of love that He sent His Son to us, and because of love, the common language of the whole human race, we learn to share. Just as the children of this world, we are reminded the common language is love when we lend a hand to help, we will save. Just as LOVE abides the Three Persons in God together, LOVE will also bring the human race together in unity rather than scatter and destruction. The decision is yours.

  [1] Website: https://lingua.edu/how-many-languages-are-there-in-the-world/#:~:text=While%20many%20believe%20that%20the,there%20are%207106%20living%20languages. By Lingua, June 29, 2022.

[2] Website: https://www.berlitz.com/blog/most-spoken-languages-world#:~:text=According%20to%20Ethnologue%2C%20English%20is,%2C%20technology%2C%20and%20much%20more. By Berlitz, February 5, 2023.