Preaching on the feast of Pentecost in 2012, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI described Pentecost as the feast of “union, comprehension and communion.” He also lamented how the revolution in communications which we have witnessed in recent decades, and which might have been expected to bring people together, has too often been accompanied by increasing divisions and hostility: “We witness daily events in which it seems people are becoming more aggressive and belligerent; understanding each other becomes too demanding so they prefer to remain closed in on themselves, in their own interests.” His Holiness proceeded to compare our modern society with the account we read in the Old Testament, in Genesis chapter 11, of the inhabitants of Babel who thought that they could use their technological expertise to build a tower that would reach to Heaven, in order to open the gates of eternity and usurp the place of God. Suddenly they found that they were building against each other, they all began talking in strange tongues so that they could no longer comprehend each other, and the whole project ended in chaos and ruins. “While endeavouring to be like God,” explained Pope Benedict XVI, “they even risk no long being human because they have lost a fundamental element of being human – the ability to agree, to understand and to work together.”
In the wake of the immeasurable suffering caused during the last year and a half by the disruption that has accompanied the Coronavirus contagion, there has been much talk of “building back better.” This might give us hope. The Christian life is all about “building back better”, because the Gospel is God's rescue plan for a mankind enslaved to sin and mortality by the consequences of the Fall. Saved from spiritual death in Baptism and elevated to the life of Grace, it is our task as Christians to build the Kingdom of God on earth in the here and now, as well as looking forward to that perfect blessedness in Heaven that awaits those who depart this life in a state of grace. Conflict, injustice and every manner of suffering can all be traced to that primeval rebellion against God when our first parents disobeyed our Creator. As Christians we know that there can only be true peace and justice where Our Lord is recognised and honoured as Sovereign ruler in all aspects of human life and society.
Alas, if we investigate some of those who talk most enthusiastically about “building back better”, we soon find that their vision for our future has little or no place for God, and that some of the solutions that are being offered are creepily reminiscent of ideologies that created so much misery, destruction and death in the last century. Too often, the “philanthropists” who speak euphorically of the opportunities the Coronavirus crisis has created for building a brave new world turn out to be keen proponents of population control, abortion and contraception. The biblical account of what happened in Babel should serve as a perennial reminder that when man determines to build back better on his own terms, without regard for the laws which God has written into human nature, and which He gave to Moses on Mount Sinai amid thunder and lightning, it is the Almighty Whose finger rests on the great reset button that has the power to reduce our most audacious plans to chaos.
During this period of the Church's calendar traditionally known as time “after Pentecost”, we should reflect on how that wondrous event in Jerusalem in which the Holy Ghost descended on Our Lady and the Apostles marked the launch of the Church as the one true vessel of a unity which is supernatural and far more substantial and profound than any other type of union that can exist between human beings on this earth. The Holy Ghost binds the Church together as a single living organism, of which we are all members, with Christ at our head. Pentecost was really the absolute opposite of Babel. Yes, the disciples began talking in strange tongues. But the effect was that those from foreign nations were able to understand them in their own languages, and the result was the incorporation of many thousands into the Mystical Body of Christ as the Church began to spread into every corner of the globe.
If “Build Back Better” is to be anything other than a vacuous slogan or, even worse, a cover for something sinister, we cannot hope to succeed without the co-operation of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. During this time “after Pentecost”, let us pray for the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and for the infusion of His gifts into our hearts and the flourishing of His fruits within our lives, in order that we may play our part in building back better God's way. May our Holy Father St Philip, whose heart was inhabited by the Holy Ghost in a most miraculous way, intercede for us.
Father Julian Large