Friday of 32nd Week, odd numbered year
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of man. 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.”
We move forward in the liturgical year, we are invited to meditate upon the Coming of Jesus, his Return. This is why the Gospel gives us several stages to follow, leading to our salvation, the term of our human history, indidividual and collective. Jesus wants to reassure us, for love banishes all false fear. Seeking to save one’s goods or tring to escape his coming would be a fatal error. We need to recognise ’the idols’ in our life so as to truely choose God. All that God gives us is so marvellous and leads us to contemplate its Author. Beauty is something subtle, God is eminently beautiful, but the devil-seductor takes on the appearences of what is beautiful….When we are attached to the ideas we have made for ourselves, this means we don’t think about God. We need a great deal of gentleness and humility in order to be in relationship with God. The God who made us draws us to Himself, he will come when we aren’t expecting Him! Let us be in a state of vigilance and of prayer.
“It will be the same as it was in Loth’s day : people were eating and drinking, ,buying and seeling, planting and building; but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all. It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of man to be revealed. Rememeber Lot’s wife. When the Day comes, no one ojn the hosuetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fioels turn back.”
In evoking the world of Noah and of Loth, Jesus doesn’t stigamtise the perversion in people, but he reproaches us for living in the present moment without any concern for the future. We need to pay attention to the signs of the times. Our only desire and only happiness is to serve God. The one who is on the terrace, in whom the desire remains, follows him immedaitely. He mustn’t ruminate over his sorrow or some contrarities; If he previews good things he won’t be concerned by the passage of God. Our aime is to be available to the Will of God, to desire Him alone.’ Who will try to conserve his
life will lose it.“The intelligence int he Gospel tells us the difference between ’the icon’ and ’the idol.’ Everything that God gives can truely serve grace, to be at the service of grace. The bread must be good in a proper state to be transubstanced and become the Body of Jesus. If we are an icone, we are a call of God, a desire of God.”Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it ; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe. I tell you, on that night, when two are in bed, one will be taken, the other left ; when two women are grinding corn togeteher, or be will be taken, the other left. The disciples spoke up and asked ’Where, Lord?’ He said ’Where the body is, there too will the vulturs gather.“Many events remind us that our stay on earth will not last indefinitaly : sickness, ordeals, reveals to us how fragile we are and that our end may come at any moment. Our daily routine may hide this from our sight and take away all proccupation for the future. Jesus commits us to show ourselves to be more responsable, with an eye on the end of our pilgrimage, yet to do this fearlessly. Vigilnace goes well with trust and faith : ’My soul longs for you, o God, When will you come to me? The Holy Spriit breathes for a flight towards God. To await the God who comes.” I tell you, on that night, two people will be in the same bed; one will be taken, teh other left.“Everything depends on the disposition of our hearts. If we have just God’s Glory as our only concern, then everything is burned at the altar of Jesus.” We dont’ let ourselves be affected by the constraints which come about one after another in the day, but we come back to what is essential.