SAINT JOSAPHAT, BISHOP AND MARTYR (MEMORIAL)

As it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building.

When Rome was sacked by Germanic tribes in AD 410, its citizens were stunned. They wondered how the “Eternal City”—unconquered for eight hundred years—could have been overthrown. In response to those who blamed its collapse on the rise of Christianity, St. Augustine wrote his famous treatise The City of God.

Augustine depicted two invisible “cities” that exist simultaneously on earth. The inhabitants of both cities go through life together and experience the same events alongside one another (like the fall of Rome). However, in the City of God, the Lord is present and the people worship Jesus as Lord. In the “Earthly City,” the people are so preoccupied with the things of this world that they are unaware of—and sometimes at odds with—God’s kingdom in their midst.

We see a similar situation in today’s Gospel (Luke 17:26-37). The same people are “eating, drinking, buying, selling,” but Jesus distinguishes between Noah and his contemporaries, Lot and the residents of Sodom, and two women grinding grain (Luke 17:26, 28, 35). In each group, there are residents of the City of God who have put their faith in the Lord. There are also others who are so absorbed in the worries and pleasures of this world that they are unaware of God’s kingdom coming upon them. Ultimately, the Earthly City and its inhabitants will fade, while God’s city and his people will live forever.

This doesn’t mean that Jesus is against everyday activities like working, cooking meals, and owning possessions. These things are usually good and necessary. But Jesus is warning us not to become too entangled and immersed in the things of this Earthly City.

So today, let’s try to keep our spiritual eyes and ears open to the kingdom of God in our midst. Let’s hold on to our earthly possessions with an open, generous hand—not a clenched fist! These things are destined to fade, rust, and decay, but we are destined to live forever. Let’s keep clinging to Jesus, the source of life and the ruler of the City of God, our eternal home!

“Lord, open my eyes to your kingdom coming upon me.”

Wisdom 13:1-9
Psalm 19:2-5
Luke 17:26-37