Today's Readings
First Reading
2 John 4–9
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward. Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 119:1; 2; 10; 11; 17; 18
Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord. Happy are those who keep his decrees,
who seek him with their whole heart, With my whole heart I seek you;
do not let me stray from your commandments. I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you. Deal bountifully with your servant,
so that I may live and observe your word. Open my eyes, so that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
Gospel
Luke 17:26–37
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them —it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.” Then they asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
Daily Reflection
By Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says that the days of his second coming will be like the days of Noah. So what went wrong in Noah’s day? The biblical answer is sin—that is to say, human dysfunction—more precisely a refusal of the great tasks that God gave to human beings. They became bad stewards of creation and bad priests, falling into ego-driven violence and the worship of false deities. The result was the flood.
But God did what he will do throughout salvation history: He sent a rescue operation. He found the one righteous man left and gave him a very peculiar assignment. Noah must have been a laughingstock, building a giant boat in the middle of the desert.
Onto the ark come representatives of all the animal species, as well as Noah and his family. Once again, we see the deeply integrated vision of the Bible. Salvation is never simply a matter of setting things right for human beings. It has implications across the whole of creation.
This is precisely why the Church Fathers saw Noah as a type of Christ and the ark of Noah as a type of the temple and of the Church.
Bishop Robert Barron
Founder, Word on Fire
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.