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 daythat 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 housetopand whose belongings are in the housemust not go down to get them,and likewise one in the fieldmust 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.”
REFLECTION
“Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”
When we last had FACEZBSone of the homilist spoke about "Practice dying and learn how to lose". According to St Frances de Sales you will not know when you will die and you will die sooner than you think. Are we gamblers hoping that the good Lord will give us another chance? After all, we made it this far but are we prepared for death when our time is up? Are we doing all that will get our soul ready for the Judgment Day?
Our Lord's last coming will be something sudden and unexpected. Even if we know that the end is near, death will come when the divine judgment visits men without warning.
We all will find ourselves before God immediately when we die. It is up to us to be ready, to have performed works of mercy: feeding the hungry, admonishing sinners, giving drink to the thirsty, instructing the uninformed, clothing the naked, comforting the sorrowing, visiting the imprisoned, practicing patience, visiting the sick, forgiving offenses, burying the dead, praying for the living and the dead. And pray continuously so that the devil won't have a chance to deter us from being Christ-focused.
There is a present urgency, a hurry up and work on your salvation by scrutinizing your own conduct, for the Lord can call on you at anytime.
Our present day saint is St Josaphat Kunsevych, a Polish-Lithuanian monk. He worked to bring unity between the Eastern Rite Church which was separated from Rome. Within him grew the desire to suffer poverty and death for his Savior. In 1609 St Josaphat was ordained a priest and once a priest he began his career of preaching and spiritual direction and providing for the needy and the homeless.
He soon became Archbishop of Polotsk but there was a dissident hierarchy of Bishops. Meletius Smotritsky claimed to be the archbishop of Polotsk. There was a great deal of misunderstanding, misinterpretation and oppression. There was a disagreement when St Josaphat was on his way to Church for the office of Daybreak. Before long, a mob formed and amid cries of "Kill the papist", St Josaphat was struck with a halberd, shot and his mangled body was dumped into the River Dvina. He was martyred by an angry mob on November 12, 1623.
He was canonized in 1867. And yes, he was ready for death, having done all he could for the Lord.
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