On June 5, 2017 Austen Ivereigh wrote this article for the Catholic Paper "Crux", describing an event marking 50 the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
Among the comments made were these, by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, who likened the divisions in the Christian Church to the construction of the Tower of Babel in the Book of Genesis - using God’s name to justify different churches claiming superiority over the others.
“At Pentecost", he said, "the Holy Spirit overturned the sin of Babel by re-focusing the apostles on Jesus Christ, renewing their hearts and minds through a baptism in the Spirit, and causing them to move on from their “small unity” to “the great unity which is the whole body of Christ, namely, humanity.” After Pentecost the disciples came to realize that if God had poured out the same Spirit on pagans and Jews, they could not oppose His action”.
My comments:
Firstly, what was the sin of Babel but unrestrained human endeavor (and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Genesis 12:6), and not about different churches claiming "superiority". It's about being biblical. The scriptures are divine revelation.
The whole body of Christ is humanity?? “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world . . (John 17:6). The Papacy wants to rule both believers and unbelievers, basically the world, and call the whole the “Body of Christ”. The Jews upon which the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost and afterward were all believers. Unbelievers, heard them in their own language preaching Jesus. Those who believe in Jesus are called out of the world and given to Jesus: Jesus does not pray for humanity (the world), but for the sheep that the Father has given him out of the world."I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” (John 17:9).
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1.13)
In the above verse we are delivered from (out of) the power of darkness (before we were believers we were captives of the power of darkness) and Christ has (present tense) placed us into “the kingdom of his son”. The church is in the world, yet distinct (in God's eyes) from it.
Humanity is not the body of Christ, but rather those individuals God has called, justified and whom he will ultimately glorify at his return (Romans 8:30). However well intended, this message was full of bad theology and amounted to yet another tired but relentless attempt to gather all religions under papal rule.
See how intolerant I am? Simply for correcting wrong teaching! You'd better get used to it. Jesus told us these days were coming. Wearing the badge of intolerance in today's culture is the price we must pay for telling the truth., for truth is absolutely intolerant.
"And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:32)
“Everybody won’t be treated all the same”
(Johnny Cash, "When the Man Comes Around"