Babble On
Feb 17: Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
The Tower of Babel and a confusing message from Jesus. Coincidence?
Well, actually, yes, it probably is. We’re just going through Genesis and Mark in parallel until Lent starts. Sometimes you gotta stretch to find the correlation between these things.
Small Announcement
Starting next week, I’m going to add a paid option to the Amateur Theologian. I feel weird charging for Bible quotes, or hiding spiritual reflections behind a paywall. But on the other hand, “the laborer deserves his payment.”1
So, basically, I decided to request an entirely voluntary payment. If you can afford and want to pay for the Amateur Theologian, you can. I’ll send the day’s observations a little early, so you can read up the night before, or have it in your inbox before heading off to mass. If you can’t or don’t want to pay for whatever reason, you’ll still get the daily reflections on the day they come out.
It’s probably not a smart business model, but I think it’s the best way to make everyone comfortable with a voluntary transaction.
Reading 1
Gn 11:1-9
The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth."
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that they had built. Then the LORD said: "If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says."
Thus the LORD scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
In case you’re wondering, yes, Babel is the ancient Hebrew word for Babylon. It’s actually kind of a pun; the Babylonians name for the city, Bab-ili, ,meant “gate of god,” while the Hebrew word balal, which sounds similar, means “he confused”. "(Neither are related to the English word “babble,” which has Germanic roots in the word for baby talk, baba.)
So, the authors are taking pot shots at their ancient rival, Babylon, by blaming their famous hanging gardens for the confusion of human language, while also accusing them of epic hubris.
This story, like Noah and Adam & Eve, is a myth, tied to the culture and history of ancient Israel. But it still imparts an important lesson!
God is God, the Lord of Heaven. We are humans on Earth. Our proper role is worship and thanksgiving, not attempting to overthrow God.
Listen, if neither Lucifer nor the Babylonians could do it, what chance do you have?
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 33:10-11, 12-13, 14-15
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
The LORD brings to nought the plans of nations;
he foils the designs of peoples.
But the plan of the LORD stands forever;
the design of his heart, through all generations.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
From his fixed throne he beholds
all who dwell on the earth,
He who fashioned the heart of each,
he who knows all their works.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Man plans, God laughs, as they say. God has a plan, and we can choose to go against it, but God was already planning for that, too. It’s best, really, to give yourself over to what you know in your heart God wants from you.
Alleluia
Jn 15:15b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I call you my friends, says the Lord,
for I have made known to you all that the Father has told me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is a bigger deal than it seems on the surface. in the Old Testament, Moses, Joshua, and David2 were called “servants” or “slaves of Yahweh”; only Abraham3 was called a “friend of God.” Jesus calling us friends is a big step for humanity.
Gospel
Mk 8:34—9:1
Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? What could one give in exchange for his life? Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
He also said to them, "Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power."
“Lose my life to save it?” Who is this crazy man speaking nonsense?
This is why, yesterday, Jesus told Peter to hush up about the whole “messiah” thing.
Jesus is still trying to set expectations. Not only is he not going to overthrow the Romans, not only is he going to be executed, but there’s a very good chance his followers will be, too.
That includes you.
But it’s all part of God’s plan, and it will all be worth it in the end. It’s not always easy to believe that now, but that’s why we have faith and hope. Not in ourselves, the way the Babylonians had, but in God.