Luke 17:26-37

Wisdom 13:1-9

Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5ab

Luke 17:26-37

Jesus said to his disciples:

“As it was in the days of Noah,

so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;

they were eating and drinking,

marrying and giving in marriage up to the day

that Noah entered the ark,

and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:

they were eating, drinking, buying,

selling, planting, building;

on the day when Lot left Sodom,

fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.

So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

On that day, someone who is on the housetop

and whose belongings are in the house

must not go down to get them,

and likewise one in the field

must not return to what was left behind.

Remember the wife of Lot.

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,

but whoever loses it will save it.

I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;

one will be taken, the other left.

And there will be two women grinding meal together;

one will be taken, the other left.” 

They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?”

He said to them, “Where the body is,

there also the vultures will gather.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you have sent your Son, the Good Shepherd, to find me and save me from slavery to sin and eternal death. Help me embrace the path of salvation. No matter how difficult it may seem, I need to lose my life and die to myself to save my life and attain eternal life with you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Noah, Lot, and the Son of Man: In the Gospel, Jesus turns from the Pharisees’ question about the coming (advent) of the Kingdom of God to teaching his disciples about the coming of the Kingdom. Jesus invites his disciples to learn about the Kingdom’s advent from two examples from Genesis. The first example is taken from the story of Noah. The generation of people “in the days of Noah” were absorbed in their everyday lives and were oblivious to their need for repentance. Noah, by contrast, listened to the word of God and saved his family by building and entering the ark. The second example is taken from the story of Lot. Lot and his family left the sinful city of Sodom, but Lot’s wife looked back. She symbolically longed for and returned, so to speak, to the life of sin she left behind. Meditating on the story of Noah encourages Jesus’ disciples to heed the Word of God. Just as Noah lived among an evil generation, so also did Jesus’ disciples. Meditating on the story of Lot and his wife encourages Jesus’ disciples to persevere in their decision to heed and follow God’s Word. To lose and leave behind their old life to gain eternal life. Christians, through their washing in the waters of Baptism, have embraced new life and left behind the life of sin – symbolized by life in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

2. The Beauty of Created Things: In the First Reading, the Wisdom of Solomon makes a digression to attack false worship. While it is wise to worship the Lord God, it is folly to worship idols. The author has in mind especially the pagan worship of animals by the Egyptians and the Canaanites. The beauty of created things can lead us to know the existence of God as their cause. The same beauty can also become a temptation. For centuries, philosophers have developed proofs for God’s existence that start with creatures. The movement of created things demands a First Mover. The dependence of caused things demands an uncaused cause. The perfections we see in things – like being, truth, goodness, and beauty – all demand a perfect cause. Creatures have been produced by God from nothing, imitate the perfections of God, and are all ordered to God according to their natures. St. Paul reflected on this in the opening paragraph of his Letter to the Romans. While the Gentiles didn’t have the revelation of the Law of Moses to guide them, they did have their use of reason and could discern the existence and power of the invisible God from visible creatures. As well, the Gentiles had the natural law to guide them and their morality.

3. From Creatures to the Creator: The sad reality is that many Gentile nations went astray. They sought God and wished to find him; they sought busily among God’s works, but they were distracted by what they saw. As St. Paul would later teach: “While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes” (Romans 1:22-23). The author of Wisdom laments that Gentiles, he is especially thinking about the Greeks, succeeded in gaining knowledge through speculating about the world, yet did not quickly find the Lord of all creation. In our day, there is the false idea that progress in science leads away from belief in God. Rather than explain everything without God, science points to an intelligent and provident origin for what it studies. As we ponder the origin of the world, the emergence of life, the complexity of a single cell, the information stored and transmitted through DNA, and the deep questions about human existence, we should be brought to marvel at the excellence, beauty, and power of the divine Source of all things.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, walk with me always. Be at my side, pick me up when I fall, encourage me when I want to give up, nourish me with your Body and Blood, give me to drink of your Spirit, and show me where I need to help others on their journey.

Living the Word of God: Will we be absorbed and “choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life” (Luke 8:14) or will we be attentive to God’s word and seek salvation? Will we look back with longing to our old life of sinful pleasure or continue to look ahead to a new life in Christ?