Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: 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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man,” Jesus says, “they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage… then the flood came and destroyed them all.”

Noah built his ark while it was still bright and sunny outside. 

Once the darkness fell and the floods came, he was already safely inside his boat. Those who were unprepared were the ones swept away.

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Jesus urges us to learn from Noah’s story.  

Build the ark now.

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There will be moments in every person’s life when it feels like the flood waters are rushing in. Faith is the ark that will keep us afloat. But we must construct it now while we still have the time.

In the words of the Psalmist, “The flood waters may reach high, but you they shall not overcome.”

How sturdy is my ark? Are there any holes or weak spots in my relationship with God?

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The closer we are to Christ now, the more prepared we will be when the floods of life come rushing. Though they may reach high, we who believe shall never be overcome.

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Image credits: (1) Go Be Radiant (2) MassisPost (3) R.L. Stollar

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Gospel: Luke 17: 20-25

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”

Then he said to his disciples,
“The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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When she was just a child, Saint Frances Cabrini often visited her uncle, who was a priest. Behind his home, there was a canal where she’d make paper boats, place flower petals in them, which she called “missionaries,” and send them downstream.

As the boats disappeared, Frances imagined they reached the shores of China and India, where she dreamt of being a missionary someday.

On one occasion, Frances leaned too far forward and fell into the canal nearly drowning. She was found on a riverbank downstream and attributed her survival to divine intervention.

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Although she survived, this near-death experience left Frances with an intense fear of water. Still, that was not enough to dampen her dream of becoming a missionary.

As Providence would have it, Frances did realize her dream, but not where she had imagined as a child. After meeting with the pope, she was told the real need was to minister to Italian immigrants in America.

Obedient, she went.

But imagine the fear she must’ve felt when she first saw the Atlantic Ocean. It was a million times larger than the canal she fell into as a child! Incredibly, she made the perilous journey across the Atlantic not once…but twenty-three times.

And often enough, in frail health with nausea and shivers.

She later said, “I do not ask God to take my fear away. Rather, to expand my heart. If I love more than I fear, then I shall overcome.”

Overcome she did. Frances lived with the poor of the earth, serving often abandoned children, turning them from orphans into beloved children of God.

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She reminds us that, no matter how great or deep our fear may be, there is One who walks on water. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus says, “I have overcome the world.”

And with him, so shall we.

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Image credits: (1) Wildwood Lifestyle Center (2) Stewardship and Development, Archdiocese of Chicago (3) Walking on Water, Joseph Brickey

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Gospel: Luke 17: 11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,
he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.
As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.
They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,
“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”
And when he saw them, he said,
“Go show yourselves to the priests.”
As they were going they were cleansed.
And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply,
“Ten were cleansed, were they not?
Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”
Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;
your faith has saved you.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Leprosy was a slow death sentence. 

Long before a person died physically, they were stripped of their home, their family, and their dignity.

If there is any good in this lonely Gospel story prior to the lepers’ encounter with Jesus, it is this: leprosy dissolved the racial and national barriers that kept these Jews and this sole Samaritan apart. Under any other circumstance, they were sworn enemies.

But in this woeful colony of exiles, they were simply human beings in need, together. The boundaries that once defined their lives had been erased by their common affliction. 

Suddenly, they hear Jesus of Nazareth is nearing. Like street dogs barking uncontrollably, each with a makeshift collar and a bell jingling around their neck, they cry out in unison, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”

Moved with compassion, the Lord heals them.

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Notice, however, when all ten lepers wanted something from Jesus, they cried out in unison. But when it was time to give thanks, those ten desperate voices lowered down to one. 

How does the intensity of our own prayer life change when we want something from Jesus versus when we thank him? Do we pray harder in our need than we do in our gratitude?

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Although we can never repay the Lord for his goodness to us, especially for healing us from the “leprosy” of sin and death, we should thank him in three particular ways. 

Pray in gratitude as often as we pray in petition; praise him wholeheartedly as a community of faith; and serve him in our neighbor. 

May we spend our lives in gratitude so that the Lord may say to us what he said to that sole leper, “Your faith has saved you.”

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Image credits: (1) God’s Fingerprint (2) The Leper and Evangelization, Word on Fire (3) Pinterest