Remember the Wife of Lot: Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time (2 JN 4-9; PS 119:1, 2, 10, 11, 17, 18; LK 17:26-37)

Today’s reading gives us an invitation to reflect on the wife of Lot.  In the story of Genesis, two angels appeared to Lot to warn him of the upcoming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  They warned him to flee with his wife and two daughters in order to be saved from the coming destruction.

As Lot and his family escaped destruction, following the narrow path of salvation, if you will, his wife chose to look back.  She looked back to the life she was leaving behind.  She looked back to all the material goods and carnal pleasures she was asked to leave behind in order to be saved.

The consequence of this action is that she was turned into a pillar of salt.  Even though, by every indication in Scripture, she was considered a follower of God, at the moment she was put to the test, it seems she put those things for which she looked back, before God.  

The parallels of Sodom and Gomorrah to the state of the world today cannot be ignored.  We’re continually attacked by human secularism, moral relativism, a flood of other isms that deny the Truth of Jesus Christ.   The Truth the sets us free.   The Truth that offers an escape from the destruction of the secular world.

As we walk the narrow path of salvation through the sacramental life of the Church, we must diligently detach ourselves from those things that are impediments to our relationship with God.

I am not talking about mortal sin, though we certainly need to identify those, repent of them and receive absolution through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Think of it this way, mortal sin removes us from the narrow path of salvation and places us on the broad road to destruction.  Praise Jesus that the Sacrament of Reconciliation returns us to the narrow path.

Even on the narrow path, we need to be mindful of the fate of Lot’s wife.  We need to identify those things in our lives that hinder true freedom in Christ and hinder the full movement of grace in our life.

Father John A. Hardon, S.J. defines an attachment as follows: “Emotional dependence either of one person on another, or of a person on some real or illusory object …the first condition for progress in sanctity is some mastery over one’s attachments.”

It seems pretty clear in Scripture that Lot’s wife had an emotional dependence on things that God was asking her to leave behind in order to her saved from the destruction…things she needed to leave behind in order to continue to progress in sanctity.  Instead of looking forward to the fulfillment of all her desires that can only be found in God, it seems she could only look back to what she thought she was losing…it seems she could only look back to those things that she thought were the source of her happiness.

So, what are those things in our lives?

The following questions may help us better understand those attachments in our lives that may be preventing us from having the deepest relationship possible with the Lord:

• Am I using created things in excess of my real needs? 

• Do I use things for the purpose for which they were intended? 

• Do I make persons or things ends in themselves rather than as means to a good? 

• We all have coping mechanisms to deal with life.  Are my coping mechanisms based on spiritual realities, or do I rely solely on material things?

An honest and regular reflection of these questions can help us identify attachments and surrender them to the Lord.  This will lead to greater freedom in Christ, greater activation of the charisms we have received from the Holy Spirit, and continued sanctification by ensuring we heed the lesson of the wife of Lot.  Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!

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