Friday of Week 6 – Genesis 11:1-9; Mark 8:34-9:1

Tower of Babel

Human solidarity becomes evil when it is solidarity in wrongdoing.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Human solidarity in itself is neither good nor evil. It is good when it serves the cause of good. It becomes evil when it is solidarity in wrongdoing. When the structure erected by humanity aims to reach the heavens in order to expel God from there; to assert to the world that God is no longer needed by anyone.

If people ever succeeded in building such a tower. . . If, for example, the ideals of the Bolshevik revolution were to triumph throughout the world forever. . . The whole world would be like North Korea today — one vast prison. No, God cannot allow something like that. It is good that He confounds human languages. Only by this means is solidarity in wrongdoing ultimately impossible. And that is what saves us. . .