Memorial of Saint Nicholas Tavelic and Companions, Franciscan martyrs in the Holy Land

 Lectionary: 495

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....

Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.

The scriptures and our tradition urge us to keep our eyes  on the prize, and severely warn us of the consequences of distraction. 

Catholics, as I have experienced them, are often very concerned about distractions in prayer. They worry that their minds wander during the Mass and recitation of the rosary. But I reassure them, that's not the distraction that is sinful. if one were to get up and wander out of the Church during the Mass, not because they had suddenly remembered something of life-and-death significance, but only because they meant to water the lawn and forgot, that would be a sinful distraction. (Or dementia.)  

Ordinarily, after the Mass, few people would remember what they were thinking about. They were not paying attention to their thoughts; they were paying attention to the Mass. And that's what it's all about. They were not distracted. 

Lot's wife was distracted. She had been forcibly warned when the Angel took hold of her hand and rushed her out of town. She heard the roar of fire and the screams of the dying and, instead of following her instinctive fear, she turned back to watch the spectacle. Or perhaps, she thought she'd go back and retrieve a pet, a memento, or some household object. There was no time for that. 

We can complain that her death was unfair but we hear the story often of someone rushing back into a burning building to get something they can't live without, and never coming out. The so-called "God of the Old Testament" is no more severe than life itself. 

As we face growing tension in the United States -- many people believe that they should resort to violence to get us back on track -- we would do well to practice that discipline of keeping our eyes on the prize who is Jesus. And be prepared to abandon everything else.