32nd Week, Friday, Nov 12
Wisdom 13:1-9 / Luke 17:26-37
The film Lawrence of Arabia deals with the life of Colonel T. E. Lawrence, the British army man. Lawrence spent years living in Arabia. One day Lawrence told of an Arabian sheik who heard a Western scholar bragging about the power of the telescope. The sheik listened attentively. When the scholar finally stopped talking, the sheik said, “You Westerners see millions of stars and nothing else. We Arabs see only a few stars-and God.” Today's reading makes the very same point.
***
Sherlock Holmes once told Dr. Watson, "You see, but you
don't observe." Is this true of us also? “Earth's crammed with heaven, And
every common bush afire with God. But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The
rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” E.B. Browning, Aurora Leigh
***
The author of Wisdom accuses non-Jews of being blind. They
see the beauty of creation, but they fail to recognize the creator behind them,
so much so, that they begin to adore created things.
***
The world of nature is both beautiful as well as powerful. The sun, the wind, the sea have the potential to be reckoned with. The stars, the moon, the mountains capture the attention and imagination with their quiet attraction. In primitive religions, nature worship is generally about the worship of nature spirits that are considered as present in the natural phenomena and are the source of modern religious beliefs.
The 1st reading begins by saying that naturally stupid are all men who have not known God, and who, from the good things that are seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is. It continues by saying that if charmed by their beauty, men have taken things for gods, then men must also know how much the Lord of these things excels them since the very Author of beauty has created them.
But with science and knowledge, the mystery of natural phenomena is logically explained away, and where once upon a time, man is subjected to nature in the form of nature worship, now nature becomes subjected to man.
But that doesn't immediately mean that man now recognizes God as the Creator of the world and all things in it.
Instead, man now sees himself as the master of the world and
even sees himself to be like a god who can abuse and destroy and waste away the
natural resources of the world and even disfigure the beauty of the world. So
modern man doesn't search for God anymore. Rather they look for ways and means
to make a profit from the world for their own selfish gains. Man doesn't need a
God, because he sees himself as a god.
As much as they have no excuses not to know who the true God
is, we also do not have any excuses not to pray for their conversion. Let us
remember that the God we believe in is the God of love and He wants all men to
be saved.
***
Giving examples of episodes from Scripture, Jesus presents
the mysterious, astonishing and uncertain nature of the day of the Son of Man.
Using the symbol of vultures surrounding a body, Jesus alludes to the
uncertainty of this day. Since we do not know the day or the hour, we must
always be prepared. The first stage of the preparation is the awareness that
the coming of the Son of Man can be at any time, sometimes when we least expect
it. The second stage of preparation is to have a realistic vision of life. Life
is not limited to eating, drinking, making merry, and getting married, as in
the days of Noah and Lot. The third stage of preparation is recognition of the
value of time: Time and tide wait for no one. What is more important is to
remain fully prepared for the coming of the Son of Man rather than worry about
the exact time of his coming.
***
Jesus reprimands those who fail to see the signs of his
coming in judgment. His coming is not an exceptional event, for Jesus blames
the people for their careless lack of vigilance in daily life. He keeps coming,
and this is why people have to be ready always.
***
Prayer
Our saving God, we are your people on the march who try to
carry out the task of giving shape to your kingdom of love and peace. When we
are discouraged and afraid or careless, keep us going forward in hope, make us
vigilant in prayer, that we may see the signs of your Son’s coming. Let Jesus
walk with us already now on the road he has shown us, that he may lead us to
you, our living God, for ever and ever. Amen
