Gospel: November 15, 2024
November 15, 2024 (Friday)
32nd Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 4 / (Green/White)
St. Albert the Great, bishop and doctor
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 119: 1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18
Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
1st Reading: 2 John 4-9
Gospel: Luke 17: 26-37
As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be on the day the Son of Man comes. Then people ate and drank; they took husbands and wives. But on the day Noah entered the ark, the flood came and destroyed them all. Just as it was in the days of Lot: people ate and drank, they bought and sold, planted and built. But on the day Lot left Sodom, God made fire and sulfur rain down from heaven which destroyed them all. So will it be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, if you are on the rooftop, don’t go down into the house to get your belongings, and if you happen to be in the fields, do not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever tries to save his life will lose himself, but whoever gives his life will be born again.
I tell you, though two men are sharing the same bed, it may be that one will be taken and the other left. Though two women are grinding corn together, one may be taken and the other left.”
Then they asked Jesus, “Where will this take place, Lord?” And he answered, “Where the body is, there too, will the vultures gather.”
Reflection:
“The Son of Man”
The early Christians, prior to the time when the Gospels were written, thought of an imminent Parousia, believing that the Lord Jesus would come soon. This understanding of the return of the Son of Man is reflected, for example, in the earlier letters of St. Paul. But by the time the Gospels came, there was already a common perception of the delayed Parousia. This means that the Son of Man will surely return but as to when it will happen—no one knows.
Today’s Gospel teaches us this particular aspect of our faith. It compared the day of the Son of Man with the reality in the time of Noah. People were not prepared when the great flood came. Furthermore, today’s pericope accentuates the manner and the locus of the day of the Son of Man.
The manner of the day of the Son of Man is characterized by urgency with the challenge to always be ready. The locus is described through the relationship of vultures with a dying body. Hence, the Son of Man will come at an hour we do not know that we must be ready to respond when he comes, like the hungry vultures gathering around a dying body.
