As a schoolboy, my most dreaded hour was the hour of French class. I was not one who hated all school, but French was completely unbearable and seemingly useless. And my marks showed it; French was always my lowest mark, often 10 or 20 percent below my average mark. After eight years of French, I remember one phrase “Je ne parle pas Français.”
It would be safe to assume that I figured I would never learn another language. How surprising it was when I went to my first day of Theology in Rome (in Italian) and was able to understand everything, just looking up a few words in the dictionary. At first, I figured it was the gift of tongues as it kept working each day, looking up fewer and fewer words in the dictionary. I had only studied it for five weeks.
Since the Legion’s official language is Spanish, I had to learn it at the same time. Being our official language, I had received three years of classes back in 2001-4. When I got to Rome I just started speaking it and somehow others understood me; I can even write normal things in Spanish, but nothing anyone would consider literature.
Doesn’t that seem contradictory? I think that the main difference is motivation: when I was a kid, I saw no use in learning French; when I studied Spanish in the Legion I saw it as an important part of the vocation; and now I the option to either understand Italian or learn theology very poorly.
Of course, I can’t assume that God’s grace has not worked as well. God will never ask us for something that is impossible and when he does ask us something, he gives us the grace to do it.
In a reflection on our limitations, we will probably realize many are self imposed; we say something like “I could never do that,” or “that is just too much.” For years I thought languages were not my thing. I could get by with passable English and nothing more. However, with God’s help I have been able to learn two in a very short time. How much more could each of us do if we stop putting artificial limits on God’s action?
Brother Matthew,
May I present it in another way? As a French-Canadian who is presently taking Spanish lessons and knows some italian, I can tell you that the structure of those three langages are quite similar. It’s quite possible that when you began studying Italian and Spanish, those 8 years of French that were deeply buried in your brain suddenly started to make sense.
lesson learn: oftentimes, we don’t understand why some burden are imposed on us. Then we relaized that they made us grow and that we elarned from them can be used for a greater good.