Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
"Let us build the city of God! May our tears be turned into dancing!" This may be one of your favorite hymns that we sing. It is a catchy tune with a beautiful image of all of us working with and for God's city- the time when there will be no tears and weeping, the time when we shall all be together praising God.
Yet today's scriptures advise us to be a bit cautious about building the city- or especially about making sure it is God's city that we build. Enthusiasm for the building the wrong city that is not God's might put us in the same straits as the people in today's first reading (Genesis 11:1-9)
Some scripture scholars think that Genesis is referring to tall towers that the Babylonians (a traditional enemy of the Israelites) built. If so, these are towers that they built because they were stairways to heaven, or in the Babylonian language, gateways of God.
In other words, the Babylonians built the tower precisely because they wanted to honor God. They wanted to be close to God. But they were going about it the wrong way. When God comes to inspect the tower, God worries instead that the people do not really want God. Instead, they want to show off their wealth and power and ability to build tall buildings.
God does not want that from us. In fact, God knows that worldly power and money like that might look great, but don't at all get us closer to God. After all, God is the lover of the poor, the orphan, the widow, the oppressed.
So of course Jesus reminds us of this fact in the gospel reading (Mark 8:34-9:1). "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Whoever wants to live this life of love in Christ must become humble eve to the point of losing a life.
So in building the city of God, we must be mindful of whom we follow. We follow the lover of the poor; these are the people to hold up and privilege. Love of those the world does not love - that is what it means to build up the city of God.
Today, let us pray for the grace to follow Jesus truly, by building the city not in our image but after God's own desire.
- Jana Bennett