Week 6 Friday (Year 1)

Readings: Genesis 11.1-9; Psalm 33; Mark 8.34-9.1

So what is the problem this time, with the tower of Babel? Why does God scatter humanity and confuse its languages? Would it not be a far better thing that they all speak the same language so as to communicate effectively with each other?

The problem seems to be that they wanted to make a name for themselves. Not that they wanted a name, but that they wanted to make it for themselves, to do it without God in other words. So they are repeating the mistake of Adam and Eve, reaching out to take and to possess something that can only be properly owned when it is received as a gift from God.

It highlights this paradox in human experience: that we spoil the thing we desire if we go about possessing it in the wrong way, often destroying the very thing we love. Human beings feared being scattered, so they built their tower, and as a result they were scattered.

It is a perfect illustration, therefore, of what Jesus says in the gospel reading today: anyone who wants to save his life will lose it and the one who loses his life for the sake of Christ and the gospel will gain it. The key to unlocking the paradox is the cross of Jesus. Where human beings sought to make a name for themselves by erecting an impressive structure, Jesus was raised up on the cross and as a result was given the name which is above all other names.

The vice of pride is one of the most difficult of the deadly sins, perhaps the most difficult of all, although envy is not far behind. Saint Augustine wonders what can undo the pride of human beings and comes to see that it can only be undone by the humility of God, something we see, once again, in the cross of Jesus.

That cross is followed, of course, by the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus into heaven, from where the Holy Spirit is sent to heal the consequences of Babel, because Pentecost is its reversal: now all the races of humanity, speaking their own tongues, yet come to understand each other and to share a common faith. It is not we who make a name for ourselves but God, working on us by his grace, who gives value to our little worth, sanctifies our sacrifices and transforms our sufferings so that we can receive the name he has had in mind for us from all eternity.