Homily

From the Book of Genesis, 11:1-9:

"Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, 'Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech.' So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth."

Once men were able to speak to one another with ease, because they shared the same language; but when their attempt to build a tower as high as the heavens became a source of their pride, the Lord gave them each a different language and mankind became scattered over the earth. They were scattered not only geographically, but scattered also by language, customs, morality and all the many ways that peoples can be different from one another. Those differences can make it very easy for pride to become a foundation for sin, one group against another. That's true on a tribal or racial, or national level, but is also true on a personal level. The differences between individual people can also become a source of bad pride, incorrect pride, sinful pride.

St. Augustine suggests that perhaps the reason they wanted to build this tower was because they had heard the story of the Flood. He says it may be that they thought if the tower was high enough it would save them from any future flood God might send. They knew that the Flood was sent to wipe the evil of men from the face of the earth, and since they had no intention of giving up their sinful ways they knew they had to build a very high tower. Their pride became the instrument of their division from God and it worked to cause the division that exists among the people of the earth.

The catechism says that pride is a false self-esteem or self-love, which seeks attention and honor and sets a person in competition with God. It is obvious that people are different from one another. Pride tells me that not only am I different from you, I am better than you. So I push you away from me lest you cast a shadow on my glory. I push you away from me because my superior status requires me to stand by myself and not be crowded in with those who are lesser persons. That is the kind of pride we generally think of when the topic comes up, and it usually fits in well with a certain amount of arrogance, thinking that honor and glory should be given to me--I'm waiting!

But may I suggest there is another type of pride, and that is the opposite of the arrogant type of pride. It happens, when I look at other people and I am afraid that they are better than me, more talented more loving, more virtuous than me. I push them away from me because I fear they could never want to be close to me, they could never feel that I am as good as they are, they could never care about me and they surely must see all of my flaws and my failures. I criticize them not because they are inferior to me but because I'm afraid that if I don't try to put them in a bad light I will be the one who will obviously look bad. I push them away because if I stand next to them they will look so much better than me, I could not take it. This too is a kind of false self-love or self-esteem which believes that if honor and attention is given to people who I see as better, there won't be enough left over for me, and I want it. I need it. They are hogging the glory I don't deserve, but so desperately desire. This too is pride, just a different kind of pride. Sometimes it masquerades as humility, but it is not humility.

The Tower of Babel is "Exhibit A" in the evidence for what is wrong with humanity. But God the Lord had a plan to heal the divisions that keep people apart from one another, and lead them into pride. With the descent of God the Holy Spirit, a new way of living is possible:

From the Acts of the Apostles, 2:5-11

"Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, 'Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? . . . —in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.'"

"When the Most High descended and confused tongues, He scattered the people; but when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all men to unity. Therefore, with one voice, let us praise the Most Holy Spirit."

The answer to the divisions between people is found in a supernatural unity. The answer to the sin of pride is the virtue of humility. I am not talking about Father's Day, but we all know what next Sunday is, right? That's a great day to talk about unity AND humility, and that's what I plan to do.