26 'As it was in Noah's day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of man.
27 People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all.
28 It will be the same as it was in Lot's day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
31 'When that Day comes, no one on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down tocollect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back.
32 Remember Lot's wife.
34 I tell you, on that night, when two are in one bed, one will be taken, the other left;
35 when two women are grinding corn together, one will be taken, the other left.'
36
37 The disciples spoke up and asked, 'Where, Lord?' He said, 'Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.'
 |
The Gospel of St. Luke tells us how the Son of Man will come, the
Parousia, or the Second Coming of Christ. It will be like in the days of Noah,
where the people live in sin, wickedness, corruption of mind and heart, and
full of lawlessness. God will come like a great flood, destroying everyone and
everything that is wicked.
It is like a baptism. That's why we are
called to live the baptismal promises we made - the baptism which we are
baptized. We should live blameless in the sight of God by living the
"great flood in the days of Noah" that was poured in us when we are
baptized - with water and the Holy Spirit. That's how important our living the
baptismal promises that we made. Because in the end, we do not know exactly
when the Son of Man will come, and we do not even know when our earthly life
will will end.
It is very fitting here to add the words
of a saint who said, "Work out your salvation with fear and
trembling." But we must balance it with the words of St. Francis de Sales:
"We should fear God out of love; not love Him out of fear."
The coming of the Son of Man is similar in
the days of Lot where the people are full and busy of themselves. The great
problem also was sin is reigning in them where immorality and homosexuality was
a way of living. Again, God will come and His revelation of self will be like a
raining sulphurous fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Here, we see how to
live the fire, the sulphurous fire-like grace that we received in the Sacrament
of Confirmation. The Holy Spirit will help us now to be in flames burning,
dedicated to God and His Gospel. Just like the Sacrament of Baptism, we are
much more called here to boost our all to live the baptismal promises we made
more fully.
The Gospel tells also that we must not be
attached to material possessions and the things that seems important to us. We
are called to a total detachment from things - everything that has no concern
with the coming of the Lord. We must not be like Lot's wife, who looked back,
and was turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). Again, we are called to a
total detachment from all and a total attachment to God alone.
Like the salt, we must be preserved in
sanctity and righteousness. Unlike the wife of Lot who looked back or turned
back in the sight of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we must not look or
turn back from sin, wickedness, corruption, and lawlessness once we dedicate
ourselves to God, because if we do so, we will be like the wife of Lot who
became a pillar of salt. Again, we must be like salt.
Let us live lives pleasing to the Lord so
that we will be taken by Him and not be left for destruction.
And "where the body is, the vultures
will gather." For people who are concerned with the satisfaction of the
body, succumb into concupiscence and irascible passions, like vultures, they
will gather into a body - left in corruption and full of filth, all of them
will be destroyed.
Here are some points to consider:
1. Live your own vocation vigilantly.
2. Live your baptismal promises
faithfully, honestly, with loyalty and fidelity.
3. Be a "living Gospel."
4. Be prepared always. (For you don't know
when you will be killed! Joke!)
5. We must embrace a life of total
detachment from everything (even human attachments) and live a life of total
attachment to God alone.
6. We must be holy as the Heavenly Father is
holy.
7. We must remember that there are times
of feasting, and there are times of fasting.
8. We must give our spiritual faculties
(soul) a lot more attention than bodily faculties.
"Jesus, I trust in You." "O
Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
Mary H. Distributist
No comments:
Post a Comment