I was both amused and pleased by the first reading during Mass this morning, Catholics have a set reading pattern and this wasn't chosen this week but years ago... yet it is pretty timely considering the path America is on today.
First Reading
Genesis 19:15-29
A reading from the Book of Genesis
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way!
Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here,
or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom.”
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD’s mercy,
seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters
and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told:
“Flee for your life!
Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain.
Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”
“Oh, no, my lord!” Lot replied,
“You have already thought enough of your servant
to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life.
But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me,
and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.
It’s only a small place.
Let me flee there—it’s a small place, is it not?–
that my life may be saved.”
“Well, then,” he replied,
“I will also grant you the favor you now ask.
I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there!
I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
That is why the town is called Zoar.
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire
upon Sodom and Gomorrah
from the LORD out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain,
together with the inhabitants of the cities
and the produce of the soil.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place
where he had stood in the LORD’s presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and the whole region of the Plain,
he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain,
he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval
by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Actually the reading this morning spoke to me in a couple of ways. The obvious one was Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed for their evil ways and how timely that is in light of the rapid descent into depravity and evil by the United States as demonstrated by the SCOTUS in it's decisions over recent decades from abortion to same sex "marriage." Here God is telling us that He is still fully in control of the cosmos and that the evil of man will not be the last word. The second little point that I didn't notice until this afternoon as I was rereading the passage was about Lot's wife. "But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt." As I was thinking about how I've been going to mass again, and the fact that I was Catholic, then more than one time I turned away to go the easy way, the way without conflict, going to church only to make other people happy with me and I thought, I'm acting like Lot's wife here, looking back when I need to do nothing but follow Christ.
Then I noticed that three months ago I had back to back posts here, one which explained why I was going to be Catholic from now on and the next one, two days later, that explained that it really doesn't matter which particular flavor of Christian one is so long as you are a Christian. But it was a cartoon I saw on Facebook that told me that, and it was wrong. For the last month I've been torn between continuing to go to the Lutheran church and going to mass in a Catholic Church. I've gone to mass every weekend for a month now, and I am more sure than ever that this is where the Lord has called me to be. In fact I'm convinced that the Lord wants everyone to be a Catholic Christian. I'm not going to try and explain all of the details of why that is right now but for my own well being, both spiritually and emotionally I need to go this way.
First Reading
Genesis 19:15-29
A reading from the Book of Genesis
As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way!
Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here,
or you will be swept away in the punishment of Sodom.”
When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD’s mercy,
seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters
and led them to safety outside the city.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told:
“Flee for your life!
Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain.
Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”
“Oh, no, my lord!” Lot replied,
“You have already thought enough of your servant
to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life.
But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me,
and so I shall die.
Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.
It’s only a small place.
Let me flee there—it’s a small place, is it not?–
that my life may be saved.”
“Well, then,” he replied,
“I will also grant you the favor you now ask.
I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Hurry, escape there!
I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”
That is why the town is called Zoar.
The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar;
at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire
upon Sodom and Gomorrah
from the LORD out of heaven.
He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain,
together with the inhabitants of the cities
and the produce of the soil.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Early the next morning Abraham went to the place
where he had stood in the LORD’s presence.
As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and the whole region of the Plain,
he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace.
Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain,
he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval
by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.
Actually the reading this morning spoke to me in a couple of ways. The obvious one was Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed for their evil ways and how timely that is in light of the rapid descent into depravity and evil by the United States as demonstrated by the SCOTUS in it's decisions over recent decades from abortion to same sex "marriage." Here God is telling us that He is still fully in control of the cosmos and that the evil of man will not be the last word. The second little point that I didn't notice until this afternoon as I was rereading the passage was about Lot's wife. "But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt." As I was thinking about how I've been going to mass again, and the fact that I was Catholic, then more than one time I turned away to go the easy way, the way without conflict, going to church only to make other people happy with me and I thought, I'm acting like Lot's wife here, looking back when I need to do nothing but follow Christ.
Then I noticed that three months ago I had back to back posts here, one which explained why I was going to be Catholic from now on and the next one, two days later, that explained that it really doesn't matter which particular flavor of Christian one is so long as you are a Christian. But it was a cartoon I saw on Facebook that told me that, and it was wrong. For the last month I've been torn between continuing to go to the Lutheran church and going to mass in a Catholic Church. I've gone to mass every weekend for a month now, and I am more sure than ever that this is where the Lord has called me to be. In fact I'm convinced that the Lord wants everyone to be a Catholic Christian. I'm not going to try and explain all of the details of why that is right now but for my own well being, both spiritually and emotionally I need to go this way.
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