In yesterday’s Gospel (Lk 17:26-37) Jesus said to his disciples, «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».
In Spanish we have a saying that in English would more or less say that “Man is the only animal who can trip twice over the same stone” obviously meaning that, no matter our past experiences, we always make the same mistakes.
In this Gospel Jesus gives us a very serious warning.
Let us live a life of invincible abandonment to pleasure or to a pleasant and agreeable laziness and sloth, most of the time, enjoying life as much as we can, totally unconcerned and careless about what is actually going on with most of Mankind, and we may caught ourselves any day facing our Maker completely unawares and off-guard.
It is a little like what is happening right now in practically all the so called 1st world.
For a decade or so we have been living as big spenders, more often than not living well over our actual possibilities, in the hope this would last forever.
In Spain, to speak only of my country, thanks to low interest loans by all banks, lots of people were buying homes or one apartment in the coast and another one in the skiing areas; changing cars every 2 years; going on holidays to the Far East or Australia or taking de Luxe cruises to the Caribbean.
Money was flowing too easily, so in the last 5 years our population was increased with 5 million immigrants plus, probably, another 2 of illegals.
It was the period of the 7 fat cows!!
But, now, all of a sudden, we have waken up, astonished, to find those 7 lean cows the Genesis speaks about, which have already come out of the river Nile and are starting to eat the fat ones…
However, with a little bit of luck, this unexpected situation due to our magnificent lack of foresight may eventually be overcome.
But our lack of foresight in getting ready to face our Maker will take us to a point of no return.
No eventual solution then. SO we better get prepared as much as we can!
