As in the Days of Noah

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, a person who is on the housetop and whose belongings are in the house must not go down to get them, and likewise a person 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.”

Luke 17:26-37

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Alone Before God

The “days of Noah” and the “days of the Son of Man” look ominously similar. People are “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.” The “days of Lot” also resemble our own times—“eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building”—business as usual. If an earthquake suddenly struck without warning, lives would be taken in the midst of the bustle. 

Life is fleeting. Looking back at Sodom, Lot’s wife failed to let go and detach from what was burning. Like Lot and his wife, spouses and friends may find themselves separated when hearts are revealed. In the end, each person stands alone before God. Any form of “herd mentality” ceases at the moment of death. 

The “Today” of Salvation

After two thousand years of Christianity, St. Pope John Paul II wrote soberly of the “today” of salvation, steering clear of “millenarian fantasies.”

Yes, the Jubilee has made us realize that two thousand years of history have passed without diminishing the freshness of that “today”, when the angels proclaimed to the shepherds the marvellous event of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem: “For to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). Two thousand years have gone by, but Jesus’ proclamation of his mission, when he applied the prophecy of Isaiah to himself before his astonished fellow townspeople in the Synagogue of Nazareth, is as enduring as ever: “Today this scripture had been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). Two thousand years have gone by, but sinners in need of mercy — and who is not? — still experience the consolation of that “today” of salvation which on the Cross opened the gates of the Kingdom of God to the repentant thief: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43).

St. Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 6 January 2001