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Lk 17:26-37 -- ..the day the Son of Man is revealed. ros-ann on Nov 10, 2012 Luke 17:32 Remember the wife of Lot. See Gen 19:26. Question: What is the significance of this warning? Answer: Lot's wife …More
Lk 17:26-37 -- ..the day the Son of Man is revealed.

ros-ann on Nov 10, 2012
Luke 17:32 Remember the wife of Lot. See Gen 19:26.
Question: What is the significance of this warning?
Answer: Lot's wife missed out on her salvation because she did not heed the angel's warning not to look back at the doomed city. In the same way those hearing Jesus' teaching should heed His warning and be prepared.
Luke 17:33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.
Lot's wife identified her life with her possessions in Sodom, and in her longing to preserve that "life" she looked back and lost her life. The disciples must be prepared to give up all their material possessions to follow Jesus. They must commit their lives totally in service to Him "living in love of God and love of neighbor. In their willingness to give up their lives in this way, they will save their eternal lives (CCC 1889).
In verses 34-35 Jesus tells them at the time of the Judgment Day of the Son of Man, humanity will be divided into those destined for eternal life and those destined for eternal judgment (see Mt 25:31-44). Those "taken" probably refers to the "saved" since those "taken" in the Ark were saved as were Lot and his daughters who were "taken" out of the doomed city.
Luke 17:36/37 They said to him in reply, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body [soma] is, there also the vultures [aetoi] will gather."
Not yet understanding His teaching, the disciples (see verse 22) ask "where?" Where is the Kingdom? It is similar to the question the Pharisees asked in 17:20 but now they want to know, if the Kingdom is among them (17:21) where is it? Jesus answers them using the common phenomena of a gathering of birds of prey signaling the presence of a dead body; although it is significant that Jesus doesn't use the word "corpse" [ptoma] as in Matthew 24:28, but "body" [soma]. It is the same word Jesus will use of Himself when He offers His disciples His body/soma at the Last Supper (Lk 22:19). The Greek word aetoi, for the birds of prey, may mean "eagles," as in the Septuagint translation (LXX) of Exodus 19:4; Jeremiah 4:13; and in the New Testament in Revelation 4:7 and 12:4. But most commentators suggest that the carrion metaphor necessities the translation "vultures," as in Leviticus 11:13 and Deuteronomy 14:12 (Fitzmyer, page 266).(3)
Question: What event does Jesus' use of the metaphor of the "vultures" and "body" to answer the disciples question refer to? See Lk 17:25.
Answer: His answer is connected to His response in verse 25 and refers to His enemies who will "flock" like birds of prey around His body on the Cross.
The Kingdom of the Church is founded upon the moment when the Christ gives up His life on the Cross for the salvation of mankind to be followed by His Resurrection three days later. The sanctification of that first community of the earthly Kingdom will take place at Pentecost fifty days after the Resurrection. From the point of His Resurrection, the Kingdom that is the earthly Church will be saved through His sacrifice and nourished on their journey to salvation by the Body (soma; see 1 Cor 11:24) of the resurrected Christ.