Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Friday, February 17, 2023
(Genesis 11:1-9; Mark 8:34-9:1)
Not only athletes but quite regular men and women look to artificial
sources for self-enhancement. After all,
if steroids could turn a good hitter into a superstar, might they not make an
average body into the desire or envy of everyone? The reading from Genesis today teaches us
that the use of technology to boost oneself is really almost as old as the
human species itself.
The inhabitants of Babel live not long after Noah. God told Noah and his sons to “multiply and
fill the earth.” Yet some of his
descendants defy the order by coming together to build a city! By their own admission their purpose is
egotistical. They want “to make a name
for themselves” by means of technology -- molding bricks and hardening them
with fire. They seem to think that they
might rival God by constructing a tower so high that it reaches heaven. The idea is ludicrous. God has to go down to stop the folly before the people destroy
themselves.
What Genesis is critiquing is not the desire of humans to improve themselves
but the hubris or pride that drives them
to win the adulation of others. People
want to become idols – to be considered gods among their peers. God is not jealous. He knows quite well that whatever humans make
of and by themselves, they will never be even cockroaches in comparison to
Him. But God wants His noblest creatures
to do better than that. He confuses
their languages and resends them throughout the world to open their eyes as it
were. God wants them and us to acknowledge
the richness of different cultures so that we might turn back to him in awe and
gratitude.
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