Pentecost, Babel, and the Ecumenical Imperative

May 22nd, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

“But as the old Confusion of tongues was laudable, when men who were of one language in wickedness and impiety, even as some now venture to be, were building the Tower; (Genesis 11:7) for by the confusion of their language the unity of their intention was broken up, and their undertaking destroyed; so much more worthy of praise is the present miraculous one. For being poured from One Spirit upon many men, it brings them again into harmony.” (St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Oration 41)

Pentecost (1308-11)
Duccio di Buoninsegna
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena

Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. But no one can truly rejoice in this feast without knowing the great good that has been bestowed upon us on this day. And that great good cannot be rightly understood apart from recalling an incident that took place long ago on the plain of Shinar, where men attempted to build a tower up to the heavens. “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (Gen. 11:4) These descendants of Noah sought in their pride to establish a unified society which, by means of technology would allow them to live in the iniquity of those before the flood, but immune from the divine punishment of another flood.

Here we see clearly one of the earliest indications of what St. Augustine would later describe later as the “city of man” as opposed to the “city of God.” According to Jewish tradition it was Nimrod who organized and oversaw the building of the tower of Babel.1 Nimrod is in this respect a type of the Antichrist, the ruler of the city of man, i.e. those who seek to live as if man is God.2 (Gen 10:8-10) Nimrod and those following him wanted to build a city and a tower, to make a name for themselves in order to preserve their man-made unity, to exalt themselves to heaven while living in opposition to God. God saw that when so unified, the city of man would be capable of whatever evil it purposed to do. Just as He had mercifully driven man out of the garden of Eden to prevent him from eating of the Tree of Life and so living forever in his sinful condition, so also at Babel God acted mercifully in confusing man’s language, to prevent the city of man from carrying out the great evils it would do if united together in opposition to God. God mercifully delayed judgment of the city of man to allow man to repent.3 By confusing the language of the men at Babel, He separated and scattered the city of man into various races, languages, cultures, and lands, and thereby limited its capacity for evil and destruction.


Tower of Babel

But God’s redemptive purpose was not merely to prevent man from falling into greater evil; He also set out to restore to man the true unity he enjoyed in Eden, a fellowship in the Divine Trinity. Only by this communion with the Divine Persons can men be truly united to each other; the true unity of men with men only comes about as a participation in the divine unity of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.4 In preparation for this true society coming down from Heaven, God called Abraham out of Ur, and began to form a people in which He Himself would come to men as a man. Finally, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.5 After Christ’s death and resurrection, but before His ascension into Heaven, He commissioned His Apostles to “make disciples of all the nations,” going “even to the remotest part of the earth,” to “every nation and tribe and tongue and people.”6 Yet He told them to wait for what the Father had promised, the gift of the Holy Spirit.7

Fifty days after His resurrection, and ten days after his ascension, while they were in the upper room, there was a noise like a rushing wind that filled the whole house where they were sitting, and tongues of fire rested on their heads. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and by the Spirit’s enabling they began speaking in other languages which they had not known.8 There, in Jerusalem, were men from every nation under heaven, and they all heard the Apostles speaking in their own language of the mighty deeds of God. On that day, three thousand heard, believed and were baptized. On Pentecost the Church was born, and so Pentecost is celebrated as the birthday of the Church.

One of the primary purposes for Christ founding the Church is to undo the division of men against men, the divisions of the human family effected by sin. These divisions began when Adam sinned, but were manifest in a universal way at the Tower of Babel, that tower of man, initiated by men and built up by men. That tower is the paradigmatic referent of Psalm 127:1, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” Pentecost is the supernatural redemptive reversal of Babel, and this is why the Church is the anti-Babel.9 The purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is to reverse that division by means of a divine ingathering. All the nations of the world are to stream into her doors, into one household, the household of faith.10 The Church is the house of the Lord, and because He builds this house, those who labor against it labor in vain.11 This is the stone that “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”12 Hence at mass the priest says,

Humbly we pray
that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ,
we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.
[…]
for through your Son our Lord Jesus Christ,
by the power and working of the Holy Spirit,
you give life to all things and make them holy,
and you never cease to gather a people to yourself,
[…]
Through your Son
you gather men and women,
whom you made for the glory of your name,
into one family.
[…]
Look kindly, most compassionate Father,
on those you unite to yourself
by the Sacrifice of your Son,
and grant that, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
as they partake of this one Bread and one Chalice,
they may be gathered into one Body in Christ,
who heals every division.
[…]
For by the word of your Son’s Gospel
you have brought together one Church
from every people, tongue, and nation,
and, having filled her with life by the power of your Spirit,
you never cease through her
to gather the whole human race into one.

Each of these shows the role of the Holy Spirit in gathering those who are scattered into one Body, and thereby undoing the division and loss of fraternity effected by Babel.

In one of his sermons in the early sixth century Fulgentius of Ruspe wrote:

For just as after the flood the wicked pride of men built a high tower against the Lord, and the human race then deserved to be divided by means of a diversity of languages so that each people speaking its own tongue was no longer understood of the others; so the humble piety of the faithful has made these divers tongues combine in the unity of the Church, so that what discord had broken up charity should reunite, and the scattered members of humanity, as members of one only body, should be bound up together in Christ, the only head, and forged together in the fire of love to make the unity of this holy body.13

Apart from Christ man cannot form such a unity, though he often thinks he can. But man’s attempt to do apart from Christ is the mission of the Antichrist, to form by the mere natural power of man the whole of mankind into a universal social and political unity ordered to this world as man’s final end.14 By his own power he attempts to recover each of the preternatural gifts lost by Adam’s sin: immortality (by genetic and transhumanistic manipulation), impassibility (by pharmaceuticals), integrity (technological dominance over nature), and infused knowledge (by electronic technology, internet, news media).

By contrast, the Church that Christ founded is a supernatural unity, coming down from Heaven, in Christ, and by His Spirit, at Pentecost. And this is why this supernatural unity is the first of the four marks of the Church, specified in the Creed: “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” The Life of the Church is the supernatural Life of the Trinity, not from man, but from the God-man, and not ordered to natural earthly bliss, but to the supernatural end which is the very perfect and eternal communion of the Three Divine Persons.15

God wants the whole human race to be united through being incorporated into the body of Christ, i.e. the Church.16 Through the sacraments entrusted to the Church we have access to the supernatural peace that comes only through Christ, the peace that passes all [human] understanding.17 The gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was a reversal of God’s confusion of the language at the tower of Babel; the pouring out of the Spirit is the divinely ordained way of uniting men in one body, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism into one God.18 The true unification of man takes place only through Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Church. But godless men always seek a substitute for the divine. And the city of man continues to seek peace and unity through political, economic, technological and military means. Yet the city of man can never find true peace and unity through these means.

St. Augustine explains the relation between Pentecost and Babel, writing:

But lo, say the disciples to the Lord, we are told in what name we are to baptize; You have made us ministers, and hast said to us, “Go, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Whither shall we go? Whither? Have you not heard? To Mine inheritance. You ask, Whither shall we go? To that which I bought with my blood. Whither then? To the nations, says He. I fancied that He said, Go, baptize the Africans in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Thanks be to God, the Lord has solved the question the dove has taught us. Thanks be to God, it was to the nations the apostles were sent; if to the nations, then to all tongues. The Holy Spirit signified this, being divided in the tongues, united in the dove. Here the tongues are divided, there the dove unites them. The tongues of the nations agreed, perhaps that of Africa alone disagreed. What can be more evident, my brethren? In the dove the unity, in the tongues the community of the nations. For once the tongues became discordant through pride, and then of one became many tongues. For after the flood certain proud men, as if endeavoring to fortify themselves against God, as if anything were high for God, or anything could give security to pride, raised a tower, apparently that they might not be destroyed by a flood, should there come one thereafter. For they had heard and considered that all iniquity was swept away by a flood; to abstain from iniquity they would not; they sought the height of a tower as a defense against a flood; they built a lofty tower. “God saw their pride, and frustrated their purpose by causing that they should not understand one another’s speech, and thus tongues became diverse through pride.” Genesis 11:1-9 If pride caused diversities of tongues, Christ’s humility has united these diversities in one. The Church is now bringing together what that tower had sundered. Of one tongue there were made many; marvel not: this was the doing of pride. Of many tongues there is made one; marvel not: this was the doing of charity.19

The mission of the Church is to go into all those nations and languages that were separated at Babel. This is the symbolism of the tongues of fire. By the Spirit of Christ, mankind, separated from God and from himself by sin, is brought into unity by entering into the supernatural society that is the Church. Just as pride was the source of the division of men at Babel, so the humility of Christ in condescending to become man is the source of the charity by which men are restored to true unity.

Two years ago, on the feast of Pentecost, Pope Benedict XVI said:

Afterward, at the feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is shown through other signs: an impetuous wind, tongues of fire, and the apostles speaking all languages. This last one is a sign that the Spirit, who is charity and who fosters unity in diversity, has overcome the Babylonian Diaspora, fruit of the pride that separates men. From the first moment of its existence the Church spoke all languages, thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit and the tongues of fire, and lives in all cultures. It does not destroy the gifts or the history of a culture, rather it assumes them all in a great new unity, which reconciles unity with the multiplicity of forms.20

Grace does not destroy nature but perfects and elevates it, and so the natural diversity of men is not destroyed or obliterated by the Church, but is incorporated and raised up into the supernatural unity of the Spirit. St. Paul writes: “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”21 The “unity of the Spirit” is the unity that has been given to the Church by the Spirit on Pentecost. The Spirit transformed men who formerly quarreled about who would be greatest, into men who made themselves into each other’s servants, with all kindness and brotherly affection. In this way the Church reverses Babel, not by man’s own efforts, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Body of Christ, pouring out charity into our hearts, to incorporate all men into that Body.22 As the power of the Spirit had overshadowed Mary when she conceived Jesus in her womb, so also on Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell once again on Mary and the Apostles, and they became for us Holy Mother Church, the Mother of all the living, i.e. those living with the supernatural Life of God.

But Pentecost did not end. Into that mystical Body “men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” are to this day still being incorporated, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Church and her sacraments.23 The Church is in this way a sign to the world of man’s original social purpose, the harmonious union of all men. In the mystical Body of the Second Adam, by the power of the Holy Spirit the fruits of the first Adam’s sin (i.e. division and strife and dissension and schism) are done away. Instead of murdering our brother as did Cain and the children of Cain, we now, incorporated into this mystical Body, are marked by the charity of laying down our lives for our brothers, as the Second Adam did for us.

Throughout the Church’s history since the first Pentecost, the schisms that have weakened the unity and strength of her voice to the world by adding many other competing voices, are in their effect like the curse of Babel that thwarted the builders of that tower. But in this case they are opposing not the tower of men, but the tower that God Himself is building.24 The Church does not lose her supernatural unity when men form schisms from her. No man can break or destroy this supernatural unity. But as man through sin robs God of the glory He ought to have received, so schism from the Church robs the Church of the clarity of her witness to her supernatural origin and unity, like an eclipse that darkens the light of Christ to the world. Christ has established that by the witness of the Church’s supernatural unity in charity, the world will know that Christ came from God, and that those who love Christ are loved by the Father.25 For this reason, the feast of Pentecost kindles in us not only tongues of evangelism to those who do not know of Christ, but also tongues of reconciliation with those in schism from us. Pentecost as the reversal of Babel calls us to pursue true peace and reunion with all those Christians now estranged from us through schism; it thus lays upon us the ecumenical imperative.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. Bring all Christians into full and visible unity in the Body of Christ. In nomine Patris et fillii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

  1. According to this Jewish tradition it was Eber, the father of the Hebrews and the great-grandson of Shem, who refused to participate, and for this reason his language (Hebrew), which was the language spoken by Noah and all those before him, was not changed at Babel. (Gen 10:24-25; 11:14-17) []
  2. Man can truly live as God, but only in union with the God who for our sake and for our salvation, became man, Jesus Christ. []
  3. 2 Peter 3:9,15. []
  4. Those not at peace with God cannot be at peace with one another. []
  5. Gal. 4:4. []
  6. Matthew 28:20, Acts 1:8, Revelation 14:6. []
  7. Acts 1:4. []
  8. Acts 2:1-4. []
  9. This is why it is fitting that the Church is built on Rome, which Peter refers to as Babylon (2 Peter 5:13), and which is the natural kingdom taken over by Christ’s supernatural Kingdom, according to Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 2). At the time Peter was writing, Rome, like the Babylon of old, was the locus of that same human attempt to unify man apart from God, just as Nimrod had sought to do. This is also why to the mind without the spirit, the Apostles seemed to be drunk, i.e. seemed to be babbling. Cf. Acts 2:13,15. []
  10. “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.” (Isaiah 2:2) Cf. Gal 6:10, Ephesians 2:19. []
  11. 2 Chron. 13:12, Acts 5:39. []
  12. Daniel 2:35. []
  13. Patrologia Latina 65, Sermon LI (51). P. 918. []
  14. “The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 676. []
  15. If the Church were founded by mere men, she would have earthly, natural happiness as her end. Her end would be merely a return to an earthly paradise, without disease, suffering or death, forever without end, grace without glory. But Heaven is infinitely beyond the natural happiness of paradise, as the Life of the Creator infinitely transcends the life of mere creatures. Heaven is the eternal inner Life and Happiness of the Triune God, into which we are graciously called to participate. To have Heaven as her end (i.e. its telos), the Church must have Heaven as its principle and source, which is why the Church must be founded by the God-man, Jesus Christ. This is why no society founded by mere men can be the Church. And this is why apostolic succession is essential to the Church, because only by apostolic succession is the activity of the Church the continuation and extension of the supernatural Life and mission of the incarnate Christ. []
  16. Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 12. []
  17. Phil. 4:7. []
  18. Eph. 4:4-5. []
  19. St. Augustine, Tractate 6.10. []
  20. Pope Benedict XVI, May 7, 2008. []
  21. Ephesians 4:3. []
  22. Romans 5:5. []
  23. Revelations 5:9. []
  24. To read an early second century description of the Church as the tower that God is building, see Book 1 of the Shepherd of Hermas. []
  25. John 17:21-23. []
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  1. As a big fan of typology I was blown away by the idea of Pentecost as “anti-Babel”. I heard this in a lecture on Biblical Typology by Lawrence Feingold. It brings a whole new light to the Genesis account. Also I found it interesting that the church Fathers were in agreement about this. Strange that as a Pentecostal I was never introduced to this concept in my Pentateuch class in Bible college.

    Another interesting fact for anyone interested in demographics can be seen here.
    Christianity now covers 33% of the world with Catholicism at 17% or 1.19 Billion. (That’s B as in Billion.) On the chart I linked if you divide Islam into Sunni/Shi’a/other at 15%/4%/2% then Roman Catholicism is the largest religion on earth with Sunni Islam #2. But what is most interesting to me about the pie chart is that only one slice has a singular, unified hierarchy with a single leader. For instance, “Protestant” is listed at ~6%. Well give me a break there is a lot of diversity in there. So much diversity (as opposed to the unity of Pentecost) of doctrine it seems to me the witness of Pentecost loses its fire to the watching world. And though in some contexts all Christianity should be lumped together, there is still the counterintuitive reality that the biggest slice of not just Christianity, but religion in general is a single, visible organization. That seems to me to either a really big fluke of human history, or perhaps a sign of something supernatural. Either way I think it may be a complete historical aberration.

    Peace,

    -David M.

  2. Thanks David.

    In his Pentecost homily yesterday, Pope Benedict referred to Babel, and contrasted the uniformity of Babel (“one language”), with the unity-with-diversity of Pentecost (“many languages”).

    Here’s an excerpt:

    The Son of God, dead and risen and returned to the Father, now breathes with untold energy the divine breath upon humanity, the Holy Spirit. And what does this new and powerful self-communication of God produce? Where there are divisions and estrangement he creates unity and understanding. The Spirit triggers a process of reunification of the divided and dispersed parts of the human family; persons, often reduced to individuals in competition or in conflict with each other, reached by the Spirit of Christ, open themselves to the experience of communion, can involve them to such an extent as to make of them a new organism, a new subject: the Church. This is the effect of God’s work: unity; thus unity is the sign of recognition, the “business card” of the Church in the course of her universal history. From the very beginning, from the day of Pentecost, she speaks all languages. The universal Church precedes the particular Churches, and the latter must always conform to the former according to a criterion of unity and universality. The Church never remains a prisoner within political, racial and cultural confines; she cannot be confused with states not with federations of states, because her unity is of a different type and aspires to transcend every human frontier.

    From this, dear brothers, there derives a practical criterion of discernment for Christian life: When a person or a community, limits itself to its own way of thinking and acting, it is a sign that it has distanced itself from the Holy Spirit. The path of Christians and of the particular Churches must always confront itself with the path of the one and catholic Church, and harmonize with it. This does not mean that the unity created by the Holy Spirit is a kind of homogenization. On the contrary, that is rather the model of Babel, that is, the imposition of a culture of unity that we could call “technological.” The Bible, in fact, tells us (cf. Genesis 11:1-9) that in Babel everyone spoke the same language. At Pentecost, however, the Apostles speak different languages in such a way that everyone understands the message in his own tongue. The unity of the Spirit is manifested in the plurality of understanding. The Church is one and multiple by her nature, destined as she is to live among all nations, all peoples, and in the most diverse social contexts. She responds to her vocation to be a sign and instrument of unity of the human race (cf. “Lumen Gentium,” 1) only if she remains free from every state and every particular culture. Always and in every place the Church must truly be catholic and universal, the house of all in which each one can find a place.

    The whole homily can be found here.

    In the peace of Christ,

    – Bryan

  3. Here’s another video from the Solemnity of Pentecost at St. Peter’s Basilica:

    And in Rome at the Pantheon (which is now a minor basilica called S. Maria ad martyres) there is a custom of dropping rose petals from the opening at the top of the dome, every Pentecost. Red is the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit, and the falling of the rose petals represents the falling of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire on Mary and the Apostles in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. Here’s a video from that event yesterday:

    Photos from last year.

  4. Thanks for this post and thank you David for the comments you left. It has given a lot more to think about when it comes to Pentecost and Babel.

  5. The tower that the many built, in mystery looked for One, who coming down would build on earth a tower that lifts up to Heaven. Yea the ark of living creatures looked in a type for our Lord; for He should build the Holy Church, wherein souls find a refuge. In Peleg’s days earth was divided into tongues, threescore and ten. For Him Who by the tongues, to His Apostles divided earth. (Hymns of St. Ephraim)

    To Petilian the Donatist, St. Augustine wrote of the relation between Pentecost and the catholicity and unity of the Church:

    [T]he Holy Spirit descended in such wise, that those who were then filled with it spoke with various tongues: what was the meaning of that sign and prodigy? Why then is the Holy Spirit given now in such wise, that no one to whom it is given speaks with various tongues, except because that miracle then prefigured that all nations of the earth should believe, and that thus the gospel should be found to be in every tongue? Just as it was foretold in the psalm so long before: “There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” This was said with reference to those men who were destined, after receiving the Holy Spirit, to speak with every kind of tongue. But because this passage itself signified that the gospel should be found hereafter in all nations and languages, and that the body of Christ should sound forth throughout all the world in every tongue, therefore he goes on to say, “Their sound is gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” Hence it is that the true Church is hidden from no one. And hence comes that which the Lord Himself says in the gospel, “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matt. 5:14 And therefore David continues in the same psalm, “In the sun has He placed His tabernacle,” that is, in the open light of day; as we read in the Book of Kings, “For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” (2 Sam. 12:12) And He Himself is “as a bridegroom coming out of His chamber, and rejoices as a giant to run His race. His going forth is from the end of heaven:” here you have the coming of the Lord in the flesh. “And His circuit unto the ends of it:” here you have His resurrection and ascension. “And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof:” here you have the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom He sent in tongues of fire, that He might make manifest the glowing heat of charity, which he certainly cannot have who does not keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with the Church, which is throughout all languages. (Answer to Petilian the Donatist, Bk II, c. 32)

    A blessed feast of Pentecost to all our readers. May God pour out His Holy Spirit on us all in greater measure, and fill us with the love that seeks greater unity with Christ, greater unity with His Church, and greater unity with all those who love Christ.

    In the peace of Christ,

    – Bryan

  6. Bryan,

    Thank you for this fine post. I’m currently working on a conversion book that approaches Christian unity from this very same vantage. God’s way to remedy the just punishments of our vain attempts at constructing our own way to God–building our own Church–is the same as our first attempt at building a tower to reach him in the sky. Both are vain attempts at what is obviously impossible (as if God were at the top of the highest mountain or as if man could build what only God could–His Church). Mary in the upper room with the Apostles–filled with the Holy Spirit–is his method and it is his method today of uniting us again.

    I’ve heard someone say that “to understand Mary is to understand Catholicism”. Really, to be with Mary in the upper room is to understand the Catholic Church. She is calling her children back to the room, to be enlivened by the Spirit, and to speak again the same language that the disease of division and denomination has plagued for too long. If one only spends an afternoon reading a heavily commented thread here at CTC they can understand that a type of babel has descended upon us again.

    I, too, join my heart with your prayer that Christ’s Church would be one and that all those who gaze upon the shores of the Tiber would lift their feet out of the mud and proceed with courage to become a part of the authentic work of the Spirit in unifying humanity–and that it would start in the Church first. Amen!

    Peace to all this Feast of Pentecost!

  7. Amen Brent. Here is the Latin Church’s traditional prayer on Pentecost. The hymn was written by Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century.

    Veni Creator Spiritus

    English Translation

    Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,
    and in our hearts take up Thy rest;
    come with Thy grace and heav’nly aid,
    To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

    O Comforter, to Thee we cry,
    Thou heav’nly gift of God most high,
    Thou Fount of life, and Fire of love,
    and sweet anointing from above.

    O Finger of the hand divine,
    the sevenfold gifts of grace are thine;
    true promise of the Father thou,
    who dost the tongue with power endow.

    Thy light to every sense impart,
    and shed thy love in every heart;
    thine own unfailing might supply
    to strengthen our infirmity.

    Drive far away our ghostly foe,
    and thine abiding peace bestow;
    if thou be our preventing Guide,
    no evil can our steps betide.

    Praise we the Father and the Son
    and Holy Spirit with them One;
    and may the Son on us bestow
    the gifts that from the Spirit flow.

  8. In his weekly audience today, Pope Benedict taught that man’s sin at Babel was another exemplification of Adam’s sin, and that man still wants to build the tower of Babel, seeking to rise up to the place of God on his own, and replace God by taking the place of God. But, as Pope Benedict explains, the way to God is through Christ, who shows us in His human nature the way to heaven, in His humility before God and love for God. We ascend to heaven, only in union with the God-man who descended, only in embracing the God who is there already, “who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6:16), and who therefore can be approached only if He approaches us first, and offers union with Him as a gift of love:

    In the Cross of Christ man is redeemed and the experience of Adam is overturned: Adam, created in the image and likeness of God, claimed to be like God on his own strengths, to replace God, and so lost the original dignity that had been bestowed on him. Jesus, however, was in that condition but he lowered himself, he immersed himself in the human condition, with unswerving fidelity to the Father, to redeem Adam who is in us and restore the dignity he had lost. The Fathers emphasize that He became obedient, restoring to human nature, through his humanity and obedience, what had been lost through the disobedience of Adam.

    In prayer, in relationship with God, we open our mind and heart, to the will of the Holy Spirit to enter this same dynamic of life, as St. Cyril of Alexandria, whose feast we celebrate today, affirms: “The work of the Spirit seeks to transform us through grace into a perfect copy of his humiliation “( Festal Letter 10, 4). Human logic, however, often seeks self-realization in power, dominion, in powerful means. Man still wants to build the tower of Babel on his own to reach the heights of God himself to be like God. The Incarnation and the Cross remind us that full realisation is found in conforming our human will to the Father, in the emptying of one’s selfishness, to be filled with love, God’s charity and thus truly become able to love others. Man will not find himself by remaining closed in on himself, by affirming himself, man will only find himself by coming out of himself, only if we come out of ourselves will we find each other and if Adam wanted to imitate God, in itself it was not a bad thing, however he had the wrong idea of ​​God. God does not want only greatness, God is love that gives, already in the Trinity and then in Creation. Imitating God means coming out of ourselves and gifting ourselves in love.

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