Word to the Wise
Friday, February 17, 2017 - Friday in the 6th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 11:1-9 and Mark 8:34—9:1]FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2017 FRIDAY IN THE SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME [Genesis 11:1-9 and Mark 8:34-9:1] "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." [Genesis] As I write this I am at a retreat center in the Palm Beach, FL area to preach a retreat for priests. The participants are mostly priests from the Archdiocese of Miami but there are priests from several other dioceses in Florida and one or two who came from out of state. However, they are from five different continents and the Caribbean! The languages I hear are English, Spanish, French and Haitian Creole. It is a challenge to preach a retreat to such a diverse group, but it seems to be going well. However, the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis shows that the diversity question is an ancient one. The Lord determines that human pride needed diversity to prevent it from rebelling once more. One wonders what the Lord is thinking about globalization! In our own American scene I meet people who are fascinated with diversity and threatened by it. In the State of Texas, the statement is heard, "Why don't they all just learn English?" Those who make that statement might be startled to learn that God determined otherwise! So, I have to be able to speak Spanish when I go to mission parishes in the Diocese of Lubbock, where I live. And I speak French with some of the African students at Texas Tech. But diversity is more than linguistic, as we know from the restaurants we see in our cities. A culture is a way of seeing God and a way of life. God's decision about the Tower of Babel saved us from monotony! AMEN
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