Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 15, 2024
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.”
They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?”
He said to them, “Where the body is,
there also the vultures will gather.”
Reflection
When my dad passed away suddenly a couple of winters ago, I felt that powerful strangeness that anybody who’s lost a loved one knows so well, that sense that things are not quite real, that familiar objects and places look different. They look empty and unimportant. I had felt this together with my husband when his father passed on without warning one sunny May afternoon, and then again when his brother went too, in the darkening days before Christmas, after a hard battle with cancer.
I know now that nothing truly prepares us for someone’s disappearance, even when we see warning signs. Not our growing awareness of an elder’s fading strength, not the ache of witnessing another’s final months of sickness and suffering. We look around in confusion, trying to find them still here in this life somehow, even though we know they’ve gone on.
But I hear Jesus in today’s Gospel telling his disciples to see differently, to look beyond this world, and to follow where God leads. Again and again, Jesus draws a line between the ongoing activities of ordinary earthly life and that other experience, that experience of being taken by God.
The disciples seem to ask fearfully, “Where are they taken to, Lord?” because that’s the mystery we tend to worry about. But it’s not what we need to know. Instead, Jesus gives us a stark vision of the material world around us so that we can see its limits and let them go. Here, the end is always near. Here, the vultures circle endlessly, and we’ll feel dread if we’re trying to stay. In honestly describing the experience of confronting death, Jesus accompanies us and takes us further. With us in this shadowy place, he points beyond the end of things into the light of life.
Prayer
Gracious God, there has to be more to life than an unceasing round of eating, drinking, marrying, building, sowing, reaping, buying, and selling. All these things ultimately have their origin in you, so it stands to reason that we should be able to find your presence in those activities. Through Jesus and your Spirit, grant us the graces and the insights needed to see your presence in the here and now of everyday life so that we will not be fatally surprised when your day finally does come. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Albert the Great was one of the Church’s greatest scholars.
Albert was born into an upper-class German family in 1206 and, accordingly, received some of the best education in Europe. Albert spent most of his education at the University of Padua. Despite his family’s disapproval, he joined the Dominicans, and he furthered his education by studying theology in Bologna. He taught at universities in Regensburg, Cologne, and Freiburg. Finally, in 1245, Albert became a master of theology and shortly after began to teach theology at the University of Paris. It was during his tenure at the College of St. James at the University of Paris that Albert taught his most famous pupil—Thomas Aquinas.
Albert was largely responsible for bringing the writings of Aristotle back in to the academic conversation. Albert believed that Aristotle's approach to the natural sciences and philosophy was not in opposition to Christianity, but, in fact, could be a useful support to Christians seeking to understand God's work in the world. Albert wrote an encyclopedic commentary on philosopher Peter Lombard's Book of the Sentences. His pupil, Thomas, eventually wrote his own Summa Theologiae largely inspired by Albert's work. Albert was a true polymath and wrote extensively on natural science, logic, music, mathematics, astronomy, metaphysics, natural law, economics, and politics.
Albert introduced, or welcomed, the study of Greek and Arabic, and paved the way for a renewed interest in Aristotle’s works, which fueled Thomas Aquinas’ study of Aristotle.
Albert was a brilliant scientist and a prolific theologian. In a commentary on the Gospel of Luke, he wrote the following about the Eucharistic command to "Do this in remembrance of me":
"He could not have commanded anything more lovable, for this sacrament produces love and union. It is a characteristic of the greatest love to give itself as food. As if to say: 'I have loved them and they have loved me so much that I desire to be with them, and they wish to receive me so that they may become my members. There is no more intimate or more natural means for them to be united to me, and I to them.'"
Albert is known as the “light of Germany” and was given the title “great” because of the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He has been declared a doctor of the Church, a title given to thirty-seven saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their teaching or example.
Albert the Great is the patron saint of scientists, philosophers, and students—for this reason, his statue is featured on the facade of the Jordan Hall of Science. The chapel in Zahm Hall is named after Albert the Great, because he is the namesake of the brother of Father John Zahm, C.S.C. Albert Zahm. Albert Zahm studied at Notre Dame in the 1880s and was a pioneer in flight. Albert Zahm is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery on campus. A statue of St. Albert the Great stands in the chapel in Zahm Hall.
Albert died in Cologne in 1280. Some of St. Albert's relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Albert the Great, whose faith sought understanding of all things and who used reason to seek a deeper knowledge of God—pray for us!