“Likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.”

luke 17:31

Luke 17:26-37

Reflection

Jesus compares the days of the Son of Man to those of Noah and Lot, when people were eating and drinking up until the day of destruction. Jesus says that when the Son of Man is revealed, people must not go back to gather their belongings or return to what was left behind, for those who seek to preserve their life will lose it, and those who lose their life will save it.

We are attached to so many things, and when Jesus tells us that we must leave all behind, particularly when we die, that concept might be difficult to wrestle with. Yet when we die, we can take nothing with us. If we stay attached to our money or possessions instead of Christ, we may lose our life eternally.

Reflect on what is holding you back from God. Do your possessions interfere with your relationship with Jesus? Are you willing to lose your life – in a cultural and societal sense – in order to save it for eternity? Do not look to what is behind you, but rather to what is ahead – Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

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Saint of the Day

St. Gertrude the Great: 1256 – 1302

“O my only Love, as I have nothing which can render me worthy to appear before the King of kings, and as I cannot correspond in any degree to Thy love, all I can do is to give Thee all the life and strength of my body and soul as long as I live, to honor Thy glorious Resurrection.” St. Gertrude