Today’s readings urge us to be attentive without delay to God’s message because its fulfillment may come sooner than we expect. Paul forewarns his beloved Corinthian community that “time is running out” and “the world in its present form is passing away.” He anticipated an imminent parousia, the second coming of the Lord, when God’s righteousness would prevail over sin, oppression, and wrongdoing, and, thus, advised everyone to live simply with few distractions.
This theme continues in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes with four corresponding woes to the rich, who are enjoying their fill now, frivolously pursuing pleasure and public esteem. Luke reaches deeply into the Jewish Scriptures for the words “rich” and “poor” because in that context the poor are not simply destitute nor the rich necessarily wealthy. In those Scriptures, familiar to many, the poor, hungry, and needy are people who long for God’s comforting word, like generations of faithful Jews who had adhered to God’s covenant.
While we sense that the parousia is not likely before our deaths, every day we face decisions to be near or far from the Gospel, unaware when radical change may overwhelm us.
Today is September 11, a date when the world changed unexpectedly for so many! Twenty-three years ago this morning, those ascending the elevators in the World Trade Center, or arriving at their offices on the west side of the Pentagon, or boarding those doomed flights, had no idea that their last decision would be how to greet death.

John Borelli

John Borelli, a historian of religions and a theologian, serves as special assistant for Catholic identity and dialogue to the president of Georgetown University.