your life, you will lose it; and if you lose your life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,
you will save it. What good is it, to gain the whole world, while destroying your soul? There
is nothing more precious than your soul. I tell you, if anyone is ashamed of me and of my
words, among this adulterous and sinful people, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of
him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
And he went on to say, “Truly I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they
see the kingdom of God coming with power.
Reflect
If there has ever been a Bible story for our times, it is the story in today’s first reading. It
certainly seems as though we live in a Tower of Babble (Babel). All too often we act like the
people who tried to build the tower with its top in the sky. How are we like them? First, their
goal focused on their own greatness and their efforts to protect their power in this world. Is
there attempt to build a brick tower reaching into the sky really different from our attempts to
find security by building up our bank accounts or to increase our political or cultural power.
Second, these builders attempted to achieve their goals without reference to or reliance on
God. Believing that we can do it on our own will always confuse and divide our efforts. Only
by placing our trust entirely in God can we keep our precious souls unstained and come
into the heavenly kingdom.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2023