Today's scriptures are full of promise and warning.
In the Psalm we heard promised that those who follow the law of
the Lord will be blessed, they will come to beatitude. We are left wondering though, what about
those whose lives are not blameless, those who do not seek God with their whole
heart.
In the first reading , John rejoices greatly that some of the
Christians are “walking in the truth”.
The truth, for St. John, is the way that leads to the Father. As he reported Jesus saying in his Gospel, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through
me.”
John then warns that there is a group of deceivers, so-called “progressives”
that are not teaching accurately about Jesus.
This is a perennial problem in the Church. John warns that those who do not remain in
right teaching, do not have God.
In the Gospel, Jesus is warning his disciples that the second
coming will be like the days of Noah and Sodom: some will be ready and some
will be left behind. He promises that
those who are prepared will be gathered into the Father’s presence forever. But he also warns about being found
unprepared.
Those in the days of Noah and Sodom who were unprepared were those
who were preoccupied with the things and pleasures of the world. They had ignored God and wandered away from
the obedience of faith.
Promise and warning. The
promise is of eternal life and happiness and joy. But the great warning is to be prepared. To prepare our hearts for the day of
judgment, by following the law of the Lord, seeking God with our whole hearts,
as we heard in the psalm, not seeking to be so “progressive” that we leave the
truth of the faith, as we heard in second John, and by turning away from
preoccupation with worldly things, to focus on the one thing, as we heard in
the Gospel.
While we live in this world, worldliness must not claim our
hearts.
Prepare our hearts O Lord! Make us worthy of your promises and
headful of your warnings, for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.
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