From Babel to Pentecost (Pentecost Sunday)

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Those who attend both the Saturday evening and Sunday Masses during Pentecost may notice that the first reading is different in both. On Saturday evening, the story of Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is read, while the Pentecost narrative from Acts 2 is read on Sunday. The use of two different readings is significant once one uncovers the connection between both.

In the Babel story, the people construct a tower (known in ancient times as a Ziggurat), which they believe will enable them to reach God directly. They also hope by this to create a name for themselves. God, seeing the worldly ambition and wicked intentions behind this plan, frustrates the building of the tower by making the builders unable to understand one another. Whereas before they all spoke one common language, afterwards they no longer had this common language.* Thus, they were unable to continue working towards this tower, and dispersed into different nations.

Fast forward the Pentecost, and we see the Holy Spirit granting Jesus’ disciples the ability to speak different languages, in accordance with Joel 2:28-32, where God declares that He will send His Spirit upon all flesh. This gift enables them to speak to all the different nations assembled in Jerusalem for the feast. They are all able to understand the disciples’ preaching, and this causes the Gospel to spread throughout the world, uniting believers into one body from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).

Pentecost, therefore, is a reversal of Babel. At Babel, God divides the people into different nations by confusing their language. At Pentecost, God uses the miraculous imparting of languages to unite the different nations into one people: His Church. Unlike at Babel, the Church is not united by any earthly idea or thing, but by the Holy Spirit. This task of uniting the nations will continue until, in the words of Revelation, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Rev. 11:5)

J. Luis Dizon