If
you read the Acts of the Apostles, it doesn’t say that people prayed in tongues, but were suddenly able to hear those around them speaking in
their own native language. It is, as Marcus Borg points out, the
reversal of Babel, when languages get
confused and division, rivalries, and misunderstandings become
commonplace: it’s the polar opposite of
kinship, but it’s also the beginning of something: an amazing possiblity of reunification. Somehow the highest praise of God is not in
speaking unintelligibly but rather, speaking in a language of inclusion where
barriers are dismantled, circles are widened, and no one is left outside. No one.
People hear their language spoken and feel brought in and welcomed as
never before. Safe to say, this pleases God, because it is God’s only
passion.
--Fr. Greg Boyle, Barking to the Choir, p.196
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