November 16th, 2018

Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
495

FIRST READING
2 JN 4-9

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth
just as we were commanded by the Father.
But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk.

Many deceivers have gone out into the world,
those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh;
such is the deceitful one and the antichrist.
Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for
but may receive a full recompense.
Anyone who is so “progressive”
as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God;
whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.

PSALM
PS 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18

Response:

Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.

Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.

With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.

Within my heart I treasure your promise,
that I may not sin against you.

Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.

Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.

GOSPEL
LK 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.”

Daily Reflection

16th November 2018

God’s Day of Judgment is a cause for great joy and reward for those who have waited with patient hope and longing for Jesus to return again in glory and power. Though the ancient world and the cities of the plain were awfully wicked, it is not their wickedness, but their worldliness, their unbelief and indifference to the future, their unpreparedness that is here spoken as a warning. Those unprepared will argue that the sun rose yesterday and on many yesterdays; of course it will rise tomorrow. Perfect security will have taken possession of the whole race, just as, in the days of Noah and of Lot, when the floods came and the fire, and destroyed everything; because their hearts were hardened and they were rebellious towards God. When the great flood swept over the earth, they missed the boat, literally!

Whose boat or safety net are you staking your life on - the world’s life-raft to short-lived success and happiness or to the indestructible Ark of God, whose foundation is Jesus Christ and his victorious cross? Is your hope firmly placed in the Lord Jesus and his return in glory?