In our gospel today, we hear that when Jesus returns, fire will rain down and destroy the wicked. Those to be saved should not stop to gather their possessions or look back; but should leave immediately.
A few weeks ago, Mary Jo, Joseph and I, and my older son Brendan, who lives near us, were caught in the Blue Ridge fire in Yorba Linda. We were told to evacuate, and only had a short amount of time to decide what we wanted to take with us, and what to leave behind. Both Mary Jo and I were at peace. We had a few things and each other, and that is all we needed. The rest is just “stuff” and not worth losing our lives over. In a way, it was very freeing to not be so attached to our stuff!
I was sad later that night when I saw a lady on TV that stayed behind and was trying to fight a raging, wind-driven fire with a garden hose, and was in real danger. I thought how sad that she would risk her life for “stuff”. It reminded me of lyrics from a song by one of my favorite Christian bands “Switchfoot”, that says “There is a fire coming that we all go through, you possess your possessions, or they possess you.”
This is the way God is asking us to live; to not be so focused on things of the world that we risk our lives, but to be focused on saving something much more important, our eternal lives.
De Colores, Deacon Kevin
Join us in prayer!
We encourage you to join us as we recite the Holy Rosary every night at 8PM! On Wednesdays, we pray the rosary via Zoom with the rector and rectora.
Resources for those not able to attend Mass
Daily Readings in English and Spanish from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
Prayers, readings for Mass, and additional spiritual readings are available at:
“Give Us This Day” a digital file of their periodical, which includes daily Mass texts. Visit GUTD.net and select “Digital” in the upper right of the screen.
