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.
Ps 33:10-11, 12-13, 14-15
Responsorial PsalmR. (12)
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.
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.”
Meditation: Genesis 11:1-9
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower … otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.” (Genesis 11:4)
The tower of Babel is one of the best-known Old Testament stories. We all remember the people who tried to build a tower as tall as the heavens, only to have God confuse their languages and scatter them throughout the world. But there’s one detail that often gets left out when we recall this story: their motivation for building that tower. Essentially, they wanted to make themselves great—and they all wanted to stay together.
We can understand why the first reason provoked God to intervene. From the very beginning, our greatest temptation has been to set our-selves up as rivals to God. But why would God object to their desire to be together?
For the answer, we have to go back to the story of creation. There, God told the first man and woman to be fruitful and multiply, and to conquer the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). He wanted his people to be co-creators with him, spreading out to all the earth and bringing it under his dominion. But rather than take to the road in service of God, the builders in this story chose to stay put and establish a comfortable little enclave for themselves. They also sought to erect a monument to their ingenuity rather than spread the beauty and majesty of Yahweh throughout the world. So God took it upon himself to send them out. And he confused their languages to make sure they couldn’t come back together again.
The moral of this story still applies to us today. God is asking us to bring the power of his love and the grace of his Spirit to all the earth. He wants us to go out into the world and share his gospel, to work for peace and justice in our communities, and to reach out to the lonely and the hurting. It is tempting to content ourselves with the comforts of home and parish life. But the harvest is ready, and God is asking us to join him in the fields. How can you do that today?
“Father, give me a heart of service. Help me see how rewarding it is to be your disciple—so much more rewarding than building a world for myself.”
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