A House United

Pondering the Tower of Babel, Kathryn Pasker Ineck considers the ways words can bring both division and peace.

“What do you think about, just before you fall asleep?” My sister-in-law Alyson’s face was obscured by the dark night overhead as she and I soaked in a hot tub with two other sisters-in-law. I don’t quite remember what the other two said, but I imagine Chrissy would have said that she liked to think of new recipes because she is constantly finding new and delicious ways to feed her little family. I am also quite sure that Kimmy would have said that she enjoyed thinking of new photo compositions because she is never without a camera at hand—film, back then.

I do remember what Alyson said: “I love thinking about homes and redecorating them in my mind.” We laughed because Alyson, a gifted hostess, is notorious for repainting, rearranging, and redecorating her own home frequently, to the delight of her many and numerous guests. They turned to me, and I was a little bashful as my response was so boring: “Words,” I breathed, happily. More good-natured laughter. Who purposefully thinks about something as boring as words?

I love thinking about the ways the seemingly random sounds fit together to form meaning. I love the feeling of the words in my mouth, on my tongue. As a child, I loved listening to the quiet rumble of conversed words as my dad visited with my grandfathers and uncles, their language flowing gently. As a teen, I loved learning about the Spanish language and even continued studying it in college because it was so fascinating and felt so natural.

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As an adult, I love learning about the Latin beginnings of our beloved Mass. There is nothing that makes my soul soar more than hearing an ancient hymn sung in Latin. Imagine my surprise, then, when I recently found myself thinking: God sure knew what he was doing with the Tower of Babel! How can someone who has spent her entire existence admiring language long for language to be fractured and scattered?!

In the Old Testament account of the Tower of Babel, the people were unified in their purpose to make a name for themselves and build a tower as a way to gain power. Today, we use our common language not for unity, but for certainly for power.

We attack each other and take sides. We throw terrible accusations and assumptions about each other. We attack people who are experts in their fields. We have weaponized our own opinions. We attack our clergy. We attack our friends. We attack everyone who doesn’t agree with us, without any regard to the other person’s humanity.

For what? To be right?

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Jesus gave us a litmus test for trust: if an action brings about division, it is not of Him. #CatholicMom

It feels as though we live in a time of unprecedented division. The Enemy is surely entertained by the division within families, workplaces, and communities. Perhaps the most damaging is the division found within our own parish communities because it is there that we expect to encounter the sacred, and there that we expect to find the image of God, Himself.

It turns out, of course, that Jesus commented on division within the faithful in the Gospel:

Then they brought to [Jesus] a demoniac who was blind and mute. He cured the mute person so that he could speak and see. All the crowd was astounded, and said, “Could this perhaps be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” But He knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Matthew 12: 22-28)

It strikes me that Jesus gave us a litmus test for trust: if an action brings about division, it is not of Him. If an action brings about peace and return to order, it is of Him. We need to be seekers of peace and we need to be bearers of Christ … Christophers (See what I did there? Etymology is never far from my mind!)

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