“All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is.” The first reading from the book of wisdom muses on how men can gaze upon the beauty of the created world on earth and the universe itself and still not know God. The moon and the stars in the night sky are beautiful. The sunshine, the warmth of a fire, the many different kinds of plants and animals on earth and in the sea, and the billions of uniquely different human beings on the earth all bear God’s fingerprints.
Creation is like a love letter that God wrote for all of mankind to discover. How could anyone gaze upon the intricate designs in nature, and how perfectly everything on the earth and in the heavens fit together, without understanding that an intelligent being is behind it all? The vastness and complexity of the universe and the amazingly beautiful designs found in a single atom, or a cell in the human body, shows that God exists in all things. Scientists recently discovered a set of gears that are located deep within the nucleus of a single human cell, that is almost an exact replica of the gears in an automobile engine. This microscopic set of gears operate much like a car’s engine to propel the nucleus around inside a single human cell. The complexity of human DNA is just now only beginning to be discovered and understood, but if the human DNA in your body were to be uncoiled, it would reach from the sun to the planet Pluto and back 17 times.
Scientists have studied the natural world for thousands of years, but in recent times the knowledge of the created world has been greatly accelerated, and yet many scientists still do not recognize the artist behind the masterpiece of the universe. Today’s reading from the book of Wisdom still applies in our world today. There is really nothing new under the sun. Mankind can still refuse to recognize God even after admiring the beauty and complexity found in nature. The words from the first reading from the book of Wisdom says, “For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find it’s Lord?” And that is a very good question.
The purpose of life is to know God and to love Him and serve Him. (cc: 1, 68) Atheists and agnostics have not yet come to understand this most elemental fact of human life. (cc: 2123-2128) They have really missed the boat, no matter how intelligent they may be. And that is exactly what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. Lk 17: 26-27
“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.” He went on to explain that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were carrying on with life as usual when the cities were utterly destroyed by fire and brimstone. Jesus warns us to remember Lot’s wife and not look back or try to retrieve anything when it happens. Honestly, we need to pay attention to this even though most people think the end of the world could not possibly happen in their lifetime, you never know.
At the very end of the gospel Christ tells us that two people will be in bed asleep and one will be taken and the other will not, or two women will be grinding flour and one will be taken and one will be left. This may not sound fair, or loving but Christ himself makes it clear that not everyone will be found worthy to go with him.
His last remark is puzzling when the disciples asked, “Where, Lord?” He replied, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.” Doesn’t that sound just like the attacks that the Catholic church is currently under throughout the world? Especially in the United States where our religious freedom is being attacked by federal law. The vultures in the federal courts have gathered around the church that contains and protects the body of Jesus Christ. However, the church is also under attack in many other places throughout the world, but Christ assures us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
