Why Latin? Part I: The Languages of the Cross and Divine Providence in History

While Latin might prove useful for liturgical use in innumerable ways, it is a sacred language first and foremost because it was chosen by the hand of Divine Providence. 

As Msgr. Nikolaus Gihr wrote, “the Latin language is consecrated by the mystic inscription attached to the Cross, as well as sanctified by the usage of nearly two thousand years.”

A Language of the Cross

Consecrated, that is to say, made holy and set apart for sacred purpose by that inscription on the cross: “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” 

This is more than a cruel joke or a mere historical accident by the sole hand of Pilate. God’s hand was made clear in the inscription. As St.Bede says, it shows “that His kingdom was not, as they thought, destroyed, but rather strengthened.” 

Or, in the words of St. Augustine: “O ineffable working of Divine power even in the hearts of ignorant men! Did not some hidden voice sound from within, and, if we may say so, with clamorous silence, saying to Pilate in the prophetic words of the Psalm, Alter not the inscription of the title? … Pilate wrote what he wrote, because our Lord said what He said.”

As the Gospel of John tells us, it was by that inscription that His kingdom was made known to the whole world. How fitting, then, that only the three languages of that inscription—Hebrew, Greek, and Latin—continue to proclaim that kingdom in the Mass of the Ages.

Divine Providence in History

While the Cross on Calvary is the ultimate historical act of Divine Providence, we can see that Providence play out further in 2,000 years of church history. Just a few things to consider:

• -In the first four centuries, the three languages of the Cross were predominantly, if not exclusively, the language of all liturgy.^[1]

• -Other languages—for example Slavonic, Coptic, and Armenian—were permitted for liturgical use as early as 872 in a spirit of ecumenism.^[2]

• -Latin, however, took precedence early on. Providence chose Rome, not Jerusalem or Athens, as the seat of the Church. Where the Roman world spread, so did the Church.

• -Countless saints, bishops, and priests have heard the Mass in Latin, have composed the most beautiful prayers in Latin, have read sacred scripture in Latin—from the catacombs to the magnificent cathedrals. 

“To be sure, the language of the Mass is secondary to the Sacrifice itself.”

I am not history buff, but it is something to marvel at, that we can say the exact same prayers in the exact same tongue as the earliest Christians, the greatest saints, and generations of our own familial ancestors.

As an academic, I am aware of how important continuity in language is regarding the most mundane topics among scholars—this word choice about some obscure law or squabbles about a translation of some poetry, and so on. How much more important are our words in so holy an act!

To be sure, the language of the Mass is secondary to the Sacrifice itself, just as are the priest’s vestments and adornments on the altar. But just as the proper vestments, the great cathedrals, the holy state of the priest, give greater glory to God than the absence of these things, so does the sacred language. 

How amazing it is that, as our churches, our altars, our sacred vessels, our priest’s own hands, have been set aside and made holy for the Holy Sacrifice, so too has the very language on the priest’s lips; that when we stand at the foot of the Cross in the Holy Sacrifice, we use the very languages of the Cross. 

Msgr. Gihr was able to write in the late 1800s, long after Latin ceased to be a household language, with complete confidence in Divine Providence, that Latin “will continue to live immortal by ecclesiastical usage and in the sanctuary of divine worship unto the consummation of ages.” 

These words are no less true today than when they were written.

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^[1] Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically, and Ascetically Explained, 319.

^[2] Ibid.