The Day Before Disaster

Disasters must come in this fallen world, and maybe they will come to us.  There are relatively few sayings of Jesus which the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve.  But one of these addresses the fact of disasters.  About those Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices, or the 18 victims of what we might call “the Tower of Siloam disaster”: “. . . think you, that they also were debtors above all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem? No, I say to you; but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:4-5)