Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather

16 NOVEMBER (Lk 17,26-37)

Leaving someone to vultures means depriving him of the necessary due burial. In ancient civilizations and religions the non burial was the sign of non peace, in eternity. The penalty exposure to birds of the sky was something unbearable for a heart, a mind. It was also a disgrace to family and friends.

Ah, land of buzzing insects, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, Sending ambassadors by sea, in papyrus boats on the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed, To a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers. All you who inhabit the world, who dwell on earth, When the signal is raised on the mountain, look! When the trumpet blows, listen! For thus says the Lord to me: I will quietly look on from where I dwell, Like the glowing heat of sunshine, like a cloud of dew at harvest time. Before the vintage, when the flowering is ended, and the blooms are succeeded by ripening grapes, Then comes the cutting of branches with pruning hooks and the discarding of the lopped-off shoots. They shall all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts in the land; The birds of prey shall summer on them and on them all the beasts of the earth shall winter. Then will gifts be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and bronzed, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers – to Mount Zion where dwells the name of the Lord of hosts.(Is 18,1-7).

The giant Goliath and David, while they were about to fight, they made this threat to each other. One promised the another he would have given his body as food to the birds of the air and wild beasts. There would have been no burial for the looser.

With his shield-bearer marching before him, the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David. When he had sized David up, and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance, he held him in contempt. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?” Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods and said to him, “Come here to me, and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.” David answered him: “You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted. Today the Lord shall deliver you into my hand; I will strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will leave your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God. All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’S, and he shall deliver you into our hands.” The Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters, while David ran quickly toward the battle line in the direction of the Philistine. David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone, hurled it with the sling, and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone embedded itself in his brow, and he fell prostrate on the ground. (Thus David overcame the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck the Philistine mortally, and did it without a sword.) Then David ran and stood over him; with the Philistine’s own sword (which he drew from its sheath) he dispatched him and cut off his head. When they saw that their hero was dead, the Philistines took to flight. (1Sam 17,41-51).

Jesus gives a very different meaning. He affirms the certainty and immediacy of death that reaches everyone, always. Where there is a dead body, there are vultures, there. Wherever a man is, there is death, there. As the vulture devours the flesh without life, so death devours the flesh with life. Let no one delude himself. We all carry death in our body.

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.”

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, make us understand the mystery.