SPIRITUAL LIVING
Prayer and Devotions
The Coming of the Son of Man: Business as Usual
by Father Cliff Ermatinger, LC
Take some to time to be alone with Christ today. Check your heart to see if there are things in your life that distract you from God’s plan.
November 16, 2007
Friday of Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
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, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person 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."
Introductory Prayer: I love you my Lord, because you are love itself. Forgive all that is in me that does not come from your love and does not reflect your love. If I am to become what you want me to be, it will happen only if I allow you to act in me.
Petition: Lord, give me the gift of hope so that I may judge the value of time and creatures in light of eternity.
1. When You Least Expect It This prophecy says that our Lord will return while people are eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, etc. Now, none of these are morally objectionable activities. Indeed, they are all necessary for our lives – people are supposed to do those things. Nonetheless, when considered in light of eternity, these activities seem banal and fruitless. The Second Coming reveals this to us. In spite of that, we are still tempted to give them an absolute value or, at the least, too much importance. We expect great things from our activities, yet they never really deliver. Earthly life promises what it can not accomplish: It promises immortality, yet it is mortal. It attracts us with beginnings that faith alone fulfills. And, when you least expect it, there is the Lord.
2. As Sure as Death and Taxes Whether the Son of Man will come or not is not the question. The question is when. He will come in his own time; and when he does, he will come as the great leveler. Although we are now a mixed bag of rich and poor, sophisticates and rustics, honored and ignored, our existence will radically change at his coming. Time will hold no claim on us: “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3). Like actors at the play’s end, we will leave behind our characters so that Christ may live in us. The labors of this life will no longer be important and, to continue the simile, the props of this life will become useless. Only one desire should move us: to see him face to face and to enjoy eternal and direct communion with him.
3. What Is the Matter of My Life? The “matter” of my life is all that makes it up: my work, ambitions, interests, longings – all those things that I choose here on earth. I heard a man once say, “My wife goes to Mass for the both of us.” It would be a shame if the wife went to heaven for both of them, too. If we are to take God seriously, and this is always a safe posture, then we have to take his words as true and unyielding. Some, he says, will be accepted into Heaven; others will not. So, we must be more concerned with a living godly life than a long life. Knowing that, why should we be content with the “matter” that lies on the surface of life instead of what is stored beneath it?
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, you created all things and called them all good. Yet creation has value only in relation to you. Help me to see the whole of creation in light of your saving plan. Never let me give undo importance to secondary things, and keep my priorities in line with your eternal plan.
Resolution: I will take some to time to be alone with Christ today. I will check my heart to see if there are some things in my life that demand too much attention and distract me from God’s plan.
