November 17, Friday, Memorial of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious
Daily Readings: Wisdom 13: 1-9; Luke 17: 26 –37
There is a famous story that explains this. One king sent one of his convicts to the other country to carry out the sentence. He wrote a letter to the king of the neighboring countries, explaining the case. The final line of the letter is about the judgment of the convict. The king wrote, “Hang him, not leave him”. Here, the king must place one comma. If he places a comma like this: “Hang him, not leave him”, the criminal will be killed. If he places a comma like this: “Hang him not, leave him”, the criminal survives.
His life can be changed with a simple comma. In today’s Gospel, Jesus instructs us to be careful of the moments in which life can change.
Jesus beautifully says that for all the people, life was the same until the moment Noah entered the ark. Same for the people of Sodom. The moment Lot left Sodom, everything changed. Life, before Noah entered the ark and Lot left Sodom, was not the same. Before, they were celebrating, but after, it was only destruction.
Life can change in a moment. By giving this powerful lesson, Jesus calls us to be thoughtful of the things that are worthy of the kingdom of God. We need to place our eyes on higher things.
Today’s first reading also urges us not to see the worldly beauties but the Lord who created them. Let’s always remember that life can be changed in a moment. So let’s try to live our lives fruitfully.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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