The speaking-in-tongues that we find in Pentecost is a reconciliation of the divided linguistic reality under which humanity suffers: the sinful separation that we deserved. Through the Holy Spirit, though, we again understand each other, and by God’s grace are set apart to be people that together honour the Creator. Having forgiven his own, Christ paves the way for this resolution to the scattering of nations. Insofar as Babel was a scattering, Pentecost is a coming together. And now, like the Israel of old, we are led by pillars of fire, and speak once again the same speech: God’s.
This is the second image in the diptych “Babel and Pentecost”