Solemnity of Pentecost 2024
Acts 2:1-11; Galatians 5:16-25; John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
Homily
Behind the story of Luke that we had as our first reading, we find the story of the Tower of Babel. In this Old Testament story, the building of a tower that claimed to reach to heaven represented the efforts of the Assyrians' political and military power to exercise its authority over all the peoples of the known world and to impose uniformity of customs and language on them. God then intervened to ensure the diversity of languages. There is a certain ambiguity in this account, however, as this diversity can be interpreted as both a gift and a punishment.