Most people never hear the first reading from the Pentecost Vigil Mass (Gen 11:1–9), the one about the Tower of Babel. It begins, “At that time, the entire world spoke only one language.” Well, that’s one way of telling the story and making a point, but does anyone besides unregenerate fundamentalists really think that it is true? We know that even sign language is culture-specific: American Sign Language is different from British Sign Language or Australian Sign Language—or Swedish, or Japanese, or Spanish sign languages. No one sign language is universal. Even non-verbal body language can be confusing from culture to culture.

But music comes pretty close to being a universal language. Certainly the music of different cultures is, in fact, different, but thanks to the speed and depth of modern communications, our musical language isn’t isolated, any more than we ourselves are.

So when the First Reading for Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11) is proclaimed—in many communities, in different languages—note that the emphasis is put on the many tongues of the apostles being comprehended by the people of various origins.

Jesus had told the disciples there were two great commandments: To love God above all, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. These commandments don’t need to be expressed in words, but must be comprehended in our actions. This is also true of the music of our liturgies. We can sing praise to God in lofty language, but until we do as Jesus taught us—live, grow, learn, laugh, heal, weep, love, die and rise again—we have not understood his message. If we do not open our hearts and our ears to the power of the Holy Spirit, our voices will not be able to sing the Good News effectively.