Memorial of Saint Peter Damian (+1072). Faithful to his monastic vocation, he loved the entire Church and spent his life reforming it. Memory of the monks in every part of the world.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Genesis 11,1-9

The whole world spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now, as people moved eastwards they found a valley in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.' For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen. 'Come,' they said, 'let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we do not get scattered all over the world.' Now Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. 'So they are all a single people with a single language!' said Yahweh. 'This is only the start of their undertakings! Now nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they cannot understand one another.' Yahweh scattered them thence all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, since there Yahweh confused the language of the whole world, and from there Yahweh scattered them all over the world.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This biblical page that concludes the first eleven chapters of Genesis is a great reflection on humanity and history. Human beings, although created in the image and likeness of God, decide to make their own destiny. They want to be the absolute masters of their own lives and of the world. The tower that must reach up to heaven is a sign of how great human pride is. The initial unity is later shown to be fictitious. Pride is a feeling that blinds because it drives one to focus attention on oneself to the point of preventing one from recognizing the other as a brother and sister. The others all become competitors and enemies who steal the show. This is what happened at Babel. Self-assertion leads individuals, groups and peoples not to understand each other and thus to scatter and fight each other. The proud person listens only to himself/herself. Even the history we are living in - although strongly marked by globalization - is at the mercy of divisions and conflicts. The Lord, however, does not allow the world to be torn apart by human pride. The division of Babel will be fully overcome on the day of Pentecost, when dispersed humanity will find itself listening, albeit in different languages, to the same Gospel. Since then, Jesus' disciples, guided by the Spirit, have been at the service of the unity of the human family. It is within this universalistic horizon that the very meaning of the Church's mission lies: to be at the service of the unity of the human family.