Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Ready For The Lord
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. The short letters of John (2 and 3) seem to precede I John. As in the longer letter, they aim to urge the young Church to stand firm in the faith and be animated by love.
Gospel. 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, which is why people must always be ready.
Opening 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.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18
R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Within my heart I treasure your promise,
that I may not sin against you.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be on the day the Son of Man comes.
In those days, people ate, drank, and got married, but on the day Noah entered the ark, the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, in the days of Lot: people ate, drank, bought, and sold, and they planted and built.
But on the day Lot left Sodom, God caused fire and sulfur to rain down from heaven, destroying everyone.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, if you’re on the roof, don’t go down into the house to get your belongings; and if you happen to be in the fields, do not turn back.
Remember Lot’s wife!
Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever gives his life will find it.
I tell you, even if two men are sharing the same bed, it might happen that one will be taken and the other left;
even if two women are grinding meal together, one might be taken and the other left.
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Then they asked Jesus:
“Where will this happen, Lord?”
And he answered:
“Where the body is, there the vultures will gather as well.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– For the Church, the People of God, that we may not be self-sure, proud and triumphant, but aware of our poverty, our ills, and our constant need of conversion to the gospel of Christ, we pray:
– For a world of violence, denial of rights and discrimination, that people may build to one another roads of friendship, respect and freedom, we pray:
– For all of us in this community, that we may hasten the coming of God’s new heaven and new earth by making straight our tortuous ways of selfishness and pride, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God of our hope,
as a pledge of your promises
you give us your Son Jesus Christ
in these signs of bread and wine.
We do not ask you for a life
without problems and risks
but for your Son’s vision
of a world in which you are present
and for your Son’s courage
to answer with our very lives
your call to build up a new world
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
our hope and our future,
you let your Son speak to us your word of hope
and renewed our strength with his bread of life.
Free our faith from banality and routine
and send us with your Son
to restore integrity and love
and the trust that with him
we can give shape to a future
beyond all human expectations,
For the future belongs to you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Blessing
Keep hoping, for there is a future. Christ is with you, and with him you can do away with violence and wars; you can defeat enmity with friendship. Keep your heads high, for the Lord Jesus is among us and with him there is hope and a future. Go with him, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Stop! Think about your death
Luke 17:26-37
“Thinking about our death is not a bad fantasy,” says Pope Francis. “We are at the end of the liturgical year, and the readings in the Mass invite us to think about the end of the world, and the end of all of us, because we will all die”. As our mother and teacher, the Church wants us to think about our own physical death.
It is important that I begin to think about my end. In the Gospel, Jesus uses the expressions “as it happened in the days of Noah” and “as it happened in the days of Lot.” People at that time ate, drank, and led an ordinary life, bought, sold, planted, and built. Suddenly, everything that was considered normal collapsed.
Every day, we wake up, prepare for work, do household chores, meet people and make plans for the future.... But there will come a day when the Lord tells us: “Wake up, let us go!”
Pope Francis, in his homily, says, “The call for some will be sudden; for others, it will be after an illness, an accident… When and how no one knows. But the call will be God’s surprise for us, taking us to yet another surprise – the surprise of eternity.”
The Lord and the Church tell us these days: Stop for a while and think about your death. I may have made all the plans for today, but will it be my last day? If that’s the case, can I spend this day well? Can I do my jobs well, as if today is my last day? This should also be the case in my relationships at home, with my family, with my friends, and at work. What if today is my last day with my family? Live it well with them!
It is beautiful that death will bring us into contact with the Lord, who will say to us, "Come, come, blessed by my Father, come with me". Then there is no point in saying, "But, Lord, I still have to fix this and do that."
Today, let us take a moment to stop and think about the day when the Lord will meet us and take us to go with Him.