Daily Reading

First Reading

Wisdom 13:1-9

For all people who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature;
and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know the one who exists,
nor did they recognize the artisan while paying heed to his works;
but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air,
or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,
or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.
If through delight in the beauty of these things people assumed them to be gods,
let them know how much better than these is their Lord,
for the author of beauty created them.
And if people were amazed at their power and working,
let them perceive from them
how much more powerful is the one who formed them.
For from the greatness and beauty of created things
comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.
Yet these people are little to be blamed,
for perhaps they go astray
while seeking God and desiring to find him.
For while they live among his works, they keep searching,
and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful.
Yet again, not even they are to be excused;
for if they had the power to know so much
that they could investigate the world,
how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?

Psalm

Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5ab

Day to day pours forth speech,
    and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
    their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
    and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

Gospel Reading

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.”

Reflection

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.